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WILLIAM   SHAKESPEARE 
HIS   FAMILY   AND   FRIENDS 


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WILLIAM  SHAKESPEARE 

HIS   FAMILY   AND   FRIENDS 

BY    THE    LATE    CHARLES    ISAAC    ELTON 

ONE   OF   HSR    LATE   MAJESTY'S   COUNSEL 

AUTHOR  OF  THE  TENURES  OF  KENT 

THE   ORIGINS    OF   ENGLISH 

HISTORY 

&c 

EDITED  BY  A.  HAMILTON  THOMPSON 

WITH  A  MEMOIR  OF  THE  AUTHOR  BY 

ANDREW  LANG 


NEW  YORK 

E.    P.    DUTTON    &    COMPANY 

1904 

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PREFATORY  NOTE 

THE  following  chapters  have  been  formed  from  the 
greater  portion  of  a  series  of  papers,  which  the 
author  evidently  intended  to  be  the  nucleus  of  an  ex- 
haustive work  upon  Shakespeare.  This  series  dealt 
with  two  special  subjects.  One  part  of  it  concerned 
the  biography  and  family-history  of  Shakespeare,  and 
the  various  places  with  which  his  name  can  be  con- 
nected. The  other  division  embraced  several  historical 
studies,  relating  to  the  sources  and  production  of  The 
TempesL 

The  shape  in  which  these  papers  were  left  by  Mr. 
Elton  was  incomplete  and  disconnected.  Some  had 
undergone  revision :  in  some  cases,  two  almost  parallel 
versions,  apparently  of  the  same  chapter,  existed,  testi- 
fying to  the  scholarly  care  with  which  the  work  had 
been  undertaken  and  planned.  There  was  no  definite 
indication,  however,  of  the  final  shape  which  it  had 
been  intended  to  assume.  To  the  state  of  completeness 
at  which  the  various  parts  had  arrived,  inference  was 
the  only  guide;  their  purposed  order  was  matter  for 
pure  conjecture. 

A  number  of  representative  chapters,  therefore,  have 
been  selected  from  the  papers,  which  may  define,  in 
some  measure,  the  scope  and  character  of  the  book 
thus  begun.     By  a  collation  of  all  the  existing  versions 


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vi  PREFATORY  NOTE 

of  chapters  and  separate  details,  the  editor  has  en- 
deavoured to  retain  everything  that  seemed  to  him 
ready  for  publicationi  while  giving  each  chapter  com- 
pleteness and  continuity,  so  far  as  was  possible,  within 
itself.  Almost  all  the  matter  in  the  first  of  the  divisions 
mentioned  above  has  been  included.  Much  of  the 
portion  relating  to  The  Tempest  was  in  so  unfinished 
a  condition  that  it  could  not  have  been  inserted  with- 
out fundamental  alteration.  Fortunately,  three  of  the 
existing  chapters  on  that  subject  were  in  such  a  state 
that  they  could  be  printed,  to  all  intents  and  purposes, 
as  they  were  left :  the  fourth  is  the  result  of  a  collation 
of  two  parallel  chapters,  in  which  Mr.  Elton's  text, 
with  a  few  necessary  changes,  has  been  carefully  pre- 
served. The  chief  portion  of  the  editor's  task  has 
lain  in  verifying  the  quotations  with  which  the  book 
abounds,  and  supplying  the  footnotes  and  references. 
As  the  papers  supplied  few  clues,  beyond  the  names  of 
the  authors,  to  these  quotations  and  references,  this 
task  has  involved  some  time ;  and  the  publication  of 
the  book  has  been  delayed  unavoidably  thereby. 

It  has  been  the  one  object  of  the  editor,  in  under- 
taking his  part  in  the  work,  to  present  these  papers  in 
their  true  light  as  a  sound  and  weighty  contribution  to 
Shakespearean  scholarship.  If,  in  many  cases,  they 
deal  with  familiar  aspects  of  the  subject,  their  attitude 
seems  to  him  to  be  distinguished  by  singular  independ- 
ence of  view,  and  by  a  characteristic  ability  to  produce 
and  handle  the  complex  details  of  evidence,  often  of  a 
confusing  and  contrary  nature.  They  bear  convincing 
witness  to  the  learning  and  wide  research  of  their 

accomplished  author. 

A.  H.  T. 

Chichbstbr, 

January^  1904. 


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CONTENTS 


PAGB 

Charles  Isaac  Elton  .  ...       3 

Facts  and  Traditions  Relating  to  Shakespeare's  Early  Life     21 
Stratpord-on-Avon        •  .  .  ...      63 

L  origin  op  name — PREHISTORIC  REMAINS  :  PATHLOW  AND  THE 
LIBERTY  — ROMAN  ROADS  IN  WARWICKSHIRE  —  RYKNIELD 
STREET  IN  "CYMBELINB"      .  ...        63 

IL  MEDIEVAL  STRATFORD:  ITS  CONNECTION  WITH  THE  BISHOPS 
OF  WORCESTER— GROWTH  OF  THE  TOWN— THE  FAIRS  AND 
MARKETS — EPISCOPAL  RIGHTS  IN  STRATFORD— OFFICERS  OF 
THE  MEDIEVAL  BOROUGH        .  .  .  .  .        7I 

III.  THE  PARISH  CHURCH  — COLLEGE  OF  PRIESTS  —  LELAND  AND 
LOVEDAY:  their  accounts  of  THE  CHURCH  AND  MONU- 
MENTS .  ...        80 

IV.     THE  GUILD  OF  THE  HOLY  CROSS :  EARLY  RULES  AND  CUSTOMS 

-RE-FOUNDATION  BY  HENRY  IV.— THE  CHAPEL  .  .        •  /^ 

V.  INTERIOR  OF  THE  GUILD  CHAPEL  — THE  DANCE  OF  DEATH: 
SHAKESPEARE'S  PICTURES  OF  DEATH— DESCRIPTION  OF  OTHER 
FRESCOES.  .  .  .  ...        86 

VI.  THE  GRAMMAR  SCHOOL— THE  GUILD-HALL :  PERFORMANCES  OF 
PLAYS  THEREIN— THE  SCHOOLROpMS- THE  NEW  CORPORA- 
TION (1553)  .  .  .  ...       97 

Snitterfield,  Wilmcote,  and  THE  Manor  of  Rowington       .    107 

Midland   Agriculture   and    Natural   History   in    Shake- 
speare's Plays  .  .  •  •       •    i39 


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viii  CONTENTS 

PACK 

Landmarks  on  thb  Stratford  Road  and  in  London,  i  586-1616    179 

I.  SBAKSSPBARB's  journey  to  LONDON  {€.  I586)  .  .      179 

II.  THB  ROAD  TO  LONDON— ROLLRIGHT  STONES— ORBNDON  UNDER- 

WOOD—AYLESBURY  TO  UXBRID6B  .  ...      182 

IIL     UXBRIDGB  TO  TYBURN— ST.  GILES*  .  ...      I90 

IV.  gray's  INN— thb  RBVBLS  OP  I594  AND  "THE  COMEDY  OF 
errors"  — "TWELFTH  NIGHT"  AT  THE  MIDDLE  TEMPLE, 
160I-2        .  .  .  ...      193 

V.     THE   GARDENS    OF    GRAY'S    INN— JOHN   GERARD'S    GARDEN    IN 

HOLBORN  .  .  •  ...     201 

VI.     SHAKESPBARB  A  HOUSEHOLDER  IN  BISHOPSGATE— CROSBY  PLACE     20$ 

vii,  the  parish  of  st.  helen's- description  in  stow's  "survey"    210 

Shakespeare's  Descendants— His  Death  and  Will         .       .    223 

i.  shakespeare's  family— marriage  of  susanna  shakespbarb 
to  john  hall— disposal  of  shakespeare's  real  propertir 

—THE  poet's  legacy  TO  HIS  WIFE     .  .  .  .      22$ 

II.  SHAKESPEARE'S     DEATH  —  DESCRIPTION     OF     THE    STRATFORD 

MONUMENT  —  DETAILED    NOTES    ON    THB    EPITAPH— JOHN 
HALL:  ITS  POSSIBLE  AUTHOR  •  .  .      230 

III.  JOHN  hall's  CASB-BOOKS— information  WITH  REGARD  TO  HIS 

WIFE  AND  DAUGHTER — HIS  WIDOW      .  ...     239 

IV.  JUDITH  SHAKESPBARB— HER  MARRIAGE  TO  THOMAS  QUINEY— 
HER  PLACE  IN  HER  FATHER'S  WILL— THB  QUINEY  FAMILY- 
ALLUSIONS  TO  GROCERS  AND  DRUGGISTS  IN  SHAKESPEARE    .      252 

V.     ELIZABETH    HALL— HER    MABRIAGBS— HER  WILL— SUBSEQUENT 

FORTUNES  OF  SHAKESPEARE'S  STRATFORD  PROPBRTY     .  .      265 

ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  SHAKESPEARE  IN  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY     277 

L    HowBLL's  Letters: 

I.  HOWELL'S  relations  WITH  BEN  JONSON  —  HIS  LINES  ON 
DAVIBS'  WELSH  GRAMMAR— LONG  MELFORD  IN  SHAKESPEARE 
AND  IN  HOWBLL's  LETTERS   .  .  ...      277 

II.     HOWELL  ON  TRADE  AND  COMMERCE- WINES  AND  ALES    .  .      282 

III.     HOWELL    AT    VENICE— ILLUSTRATIONS     OF    "THE    TEMPEST," 

"OTHELLO,"  ETC.     .  .  .  ...      286 

IV.  ANECDOTES  AND  LEGENDS  IN  HOWBLL'S  LETTERS— IRISH  FOLK- 
LORE—JOAN OF  ARC  .  ...      293 


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CONTENTS  ix 

IL   Ward's  Diart: 

I.    THK  REV.  JOHN  WARD^HIS  MKDICAL  TRAINING— HIS  REMARKS   pacb 
ON  CLSRGY  AND  THB  MKDICAL  PROFESSION         .  .  .      298 

II.  WARD  AT  STRATFORD— HIS  NOTES  ON  SHAKESPEARE'S  DEATH— 
SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY  EPIDEMICS— CONVIVIAL  HABITS  OP 
THE  DAY  .  .  .  .  ...      304 

III.     ward's    memoranda    on    SHAKESPEARE'S   ART— ILLUSTRATIVE 

PHRASES  IN  THE  DIARY  .  •  .  .  .      3II 

IV.  HISTORICAL  REFERENCES— WARD  ON  THE  HISTORY  AND  AN- 
TIQUITIES OP  STRATFORD  AND  THE  NEIGHBOURHOOD— HIS 
ACQUAINTANCE  WITH  SHAKESPEARE'S  RELATIONS  •      3^7 

IIL    DowDALL,  Aubrey,  Etc.: 

X.     DOWDALL'S  LETTER  TO  SOUTHWELL,  1693 — RODI^S  PREFACE — 

DOWDALL  AT  KINETON— HIS  VISIT  TO  STRATFORD  .  .      327 

II.  DOWDALL'S  VISIT  TO  WARWICK— THE  BEAUCHAMPS  AND  NE- 
VILLES IN  SHAKESPEARE— THE  GREVILLES  .  *  •      334 

III.  WILLIAM  hall's  LETTER  TO  EDWARD  THWAITBS,   1 694    .  .      339 

IV.  A  NOTE   BY   GILDON— AUBREY— MR.    BEBSTON'S   INFORMATION 

IN    AUBREY'S    MS8.— THE   "  BUTCHER-BOY "   AND    DAVENANT 
LEGENDS    .  .  .  .  ...      343 

V.  ALLUSIONS  BY  SHAKESPEARE  TO  THE  BUTCHER's  TRADE- 
inconsistency  of  evidence  on  the  point    .  .       .    348 

The  Production  of  "The  Tempest"        .  .  •       •    357 

I.  Hunter's  Theories,  1839: 

I.    hunter's    "disquisition   on   *the   tempest'"— ralegh's 

"description    of    GUIANA "—DEWLAPPED    MOUNTAINEERS 
AND  HEADLESS  MEN  .  •  •  •      357 

II.     "the  tempest"  and  JONSON'S  " EVERY  MAN  IN  HIS  HUMOUR" 

— FLORIO'S  "MONTAIGNE" — "LOVE'S  LABOUR'S  WON"  .      368 

III.     LAMPEDUSA — A  SUPPOSED    ORIGINAL    FOR   "THE   TEMPEST" — 

THE  MAGIC  OF  "  THE  TEMPEST  "—SHAKESPEARE  AND  ARIOSTO     374 

II.  The  Marriage  of  the  Earl  of  Essex,  and  Jonson's 

"  Masque  of  Hymen,"  1606 : 

I.  Essex's  marriage— errors  as  to  exact  nature  of  cere- 
mony—  marriage  of  lady  ESSEX  TO  ROCHESTER,  1613  — 
ACCOUNT  OF  THE  CEREMONIES  AND  MASQUES  .  .      395 

II.     SHAKESPEARE'S       ATTITUDE       TOWARDS       MASQUES— JONSON's 

"MASQUE  OF   HYMEN  "—PARALLELS  WITH   "THE  TEMPEST"     4IO 


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X  CONTENTS 

III.  The  Makriagb  of  the  PRir^cBss  Elizabeth,  1613 :  pags 

I.     ACCOUNT  OF  THE  MARRIAGE  CEREMONIES  .  .  .     423 

II.     PLAYS  ACTED   AT  WHITEHALL  AND  HAMPTON  COURT,    1613— 

STORY  OF  THE  "VERTUE  MSS."  .  ...     434 

IV.  On  a  Possible  Performance  at  the  Blackfriars, 

c.  1606: 
The  Blackfriars  Theatre  and  the  Companies  of 
Boy  Actors  .  .  ...    450 

I.     blackfriars — HISTORY  OF  THE  THEATRE  .  .  -451 

IL     CONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  THEATRE— ITS  PROBABLE  APPEARANCE 

AND  SCENIC  ARRANGEMENTS  .  ...     457 

IIL     CHARACTERISTICS    OF    PRIVATE    THEATRES — SITTING   ON    THE 

STAGE — ^THE   INDUCTION  TO  JONSON's  "CYNTHIA'S  REVELS*'     463 

IV.     THE    CHILDREN    OF    THE    CHAPEL— NATHANIEL    FIELD— THE 

PART  OF  ARIEL  IN  "THE  TEMPEST"    .  ...     469 

V.     THE  CHILDREN  OF  THE  QUEEN'S  REVELS  AT  BLACKFRIARS       .     475 

vi.   the  dispute  of  z655  between  proprietors  and  actors  at 

the  globe  and  blackfriars  .  .  .       .    481 

Index  .  .  •  .  .  ...    485 


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CHARLES  ISAAC  ELTON 


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CHARLES  ISAAC  ELTON 


THE  author  of  the  following  studies,  a  man  of  many 
unusual  accomplishments,  of  numerous  interests, 
and  of  the  kindest  nature,  Mr.  Charles  Elton,  was  born 
at  Southampton,  on  December  6th,  1839.  ^^  ^^  ^^^ 
eldest  son  of  Mr.  Frederick  Bayard  Elton,  his  mother 
being  a  daughter  of  Sir  Charles  Elton,  Bart,  of 
Clevedon  Court,  on  the  Bristol  Channel.  Hard  by 
the  ancient  and  beautiful  house  is  the  church  where 
Arthur  Hallam  sleeps,  and  the  place  is  full  of  memories 
of  Tennyson  and  Thackeray. 

It  was  not  the  privilege  of  the  writer  to  have  any 
acquaintance  with  Mr.  Elton  till  he  met  him  in  London, 
about  1878-80,  and  he  is  obliged  to  the  kindness  of 
Mr.  John  White,  c.b.,  for  the  following  reminiscences 
of  earlier  years,  and  of  a  companionship  more  intimate. 
Mr.  White  writes:  ** Charles  Elton  was  in  the  head 
class  at  Cheltenham  College  along  with  me  for,  I  think, 
about  two  years,  before  we  both  went  up,  almost  at  the 
same  time,  to  Oxford.  There  we  were  again  together, 
at  Balliol,  until  Elton  was  elected  to  an  open  Fellowship 
at  Queen's;  and  as,  very  shortly  afterwards,  I  also 
became  a  Fellow  of  Queen's,  we  were,  throughout  our 
school  and  college  lives,  very  much  thrown  together, 


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4  CHARLES   ISAAC  ELTON 

and,  indeedi  at  the  University  were  almost  inseparable 
companions. 

^^  Neither  at  school  nor  college  was  Elton  studious  in 
the  ordinary  sense  of  the  term.  At  Cheltenham  he  sat 
contentedly  low  down  in  his  class;  but  I  believe  that 
if  any  class-mate  capable  of  judging  had  been  asked 
to  point  to  a  boy  of  genius,  he  would  have  been  apt  to 
point  straight  to  Elton,  In  fact,  only  one  other  boy 
among  us  would,  I  think,  have  had  a  chance  against 
Elton  in  such  a  competition — ^the  late  Frederick  Myers. 
These  two  had  several  points  in  common.  Both  were 
wonderful  boy-poets.  Nothing  produced  by  Elton, 
perhaps,  equalled  the  marvellous  three  poems,  all 
differing  from  each  other  totally  in  metre,  style,  and 
treatment  of  subject,  which  were  sent  in  by  Myers  for  a 
school  prize  on  'Belisarius,'  and  of  which  two  were 
bracketed  'equal  first,'  while  a  second  prize,  specially 
awarded  in  that  year,  was  only  lost  by  the  third  through 
some  curiously  defective  rhymes.  But  Elton  also  won 
our  English  verse  prize,  for  two  or  three  years  in 
succession,  with  very  beautiful  compositions,  richly 
eloquent  in  language,  elegant  in  finish,  harmonious  in 
cadence,  often  exhibiting  a  certain  gorgeousness  of 
imagination  which  was  distinctive  of  him,  and  rising 
sometimes  into  bursts  of  very  genuine  poetry. 

''Old  Cheltonians  may  still  recall  what  was,  perhaps, 
his  greatest  effort  of  this  kind — a  poem  written  during 
the  Crimean  war  on  avSpoov  yap  €Tri<l>aviov  iraara  yrj  tol^o^j 
and  the  fine  rendering  of  its  Greek  subject  in  its  last 
lines — 

'' '  Far  other  monuments  their  praise  rehearse — 
The  grave  of  heroes  is  the  universe ! ' 

"Apart  from  their  poetic  rivalry,  Elton  and  Myers 
resembled  each  other  in  being  alike  the  despair  of  our 
headmaster,  the  Rev.  William  Dobson,  that  great 
scholar  and  remarkable  man,  who  created  Cheltenham 


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SCHOOL.DAYS  5 

College,  and  had  in  Elton's  day  already  made  it  a  school 
of  nearly  seven  hundred  boys.  For  a  youth  of  manifest 
power  and  yet  complete  indifference  to  success  in  the 
ordinary  routine  work  of  the  school,  Dobson  had  no 
toleration ;  and  accordingly  these  two,  sitting  at  the 
bottom  of  the  class,  moved  his  ire  not  a  little,  especially 
Elton.  That  Elton,  however  careless  of  the  daily  set 
task,  was  reading  omnivorously  all  the  time,  would  not 
have  consoled  Dobson  if  he  knew  it.  We  boys  knew 
it,  and  it  impressed  us  much.  I  remember  an  account 
of  Spinoza's  philosophy  given  me  by  Elton  long  before 
we  left  school,  and  made  so  interesting  by  him  that, 
though  I  was  hearing  the  philosopher's  name  absolutely 
for  the  first  time,  I  recalled,  years  afterwards  at  Oxford 
when  reading  of  Spinoza,  what  Elton  had  then  told  me 
about  him,  and  was  amazed  at  the  masterly  grasp  got 
by  a  schoolboy  of  a  system  of  philosophy  so  difficult 
and  obscure.  But  a  vague  pursuit  of  knowledge  for  its 
own  sake  was  not  encouraged  by  our  headmaster,  and 
Elton  showed  no  promise  or  desire  of  attaining  what  to 
Dobson  seemed  the  schoolboy's  true  goal — a  scholarship 
at  Balliol.  Indeed,  even  in  the  kind  of  acquaintance 
he  displayed  with  Latin  and  Greek — almost  our  sole 
subjects  of  study — Elton  diverged  very  widely  from 
our  teacher's  ideal.  Dobson  loved  composition  which 
imitated  with  an  absolutely  slavish  fidelity  a  correctly 
chosen  classical  model,  and  he  was  capable  of  chuckling 
with  delight  over  an  exact  reproduction  of  a  Thucy- 
didean  'anacoluthon.'  Elton,  who  had  wandered 
through  all  sorts  of  Silver  Age  and  mediaeval  Latin, 
wrote  a  Latin  style  certainly  not  Augustan,  but  as 
certainly  his  own.  Such  composition  was  not  likely  to 
win  applause  in  our  class,  but  to  have  produced  it  there 
at  all  showed,  I  think,  original  power. 

'^  As  a  freshman  at  Balliol  I  remember  being  handed 
by  Jowett  a  piece  of  English  to  be  put  into  Latin. 
Straight  from  the  school  of  Dobson,  I,  seeing  it  was 


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6  CHARLES   ISAAC  ELTON 

historical,  asked  whether  I  should  '  try  to  do  it  into  the 
style  of  Livy  or  of  Tacitus,'  After  the  characteristic 
pause,  and  with  a  characteristic  smile,  *  Do  it  into  good 
Latin,'  said  Jowett ;  and  his  words  were  a  sort  of 
revelation  to  me.  Elton  needed  no  such  revelation. 
He  was  proof  against  the  imitative  system  of  classical 
composition  which  was  inculcated  at  Cheltenham,  and 
in  nothing  written  by  him  do  I  ever  remember  to 
have  detected  the  slightest  copying  of  any  other  man's 
style. 

'Mn  personal  appearance,  Elton  as  a  schoolboy  and 
undergraduate  was  a  strong  contrast  to  what  he  after- 
wards became.  The  slim  youth,  whom  I  recall,  with 
his  pale,  grave,  interesting  face  and  deep-blue,  poetic 
eyes,  had  an  air  of  languor  strikingly  different  from  the 
mien  of  that  man  of  very  full  figure  and  exuberant 
vitality,  who  in  later  life  impressed  all  who  saw  him 
with  an  idea  of  masterful  force  and  energy.  Elton's 
early  taste  for  studies  beyond  his  years  has  been  men- 
tioned, but  it  probably  never  occurred  to  anybody  to 
call  him  *  precocious.'  He  looked  in  boyhood  much 
older  than  he  was,  and  the  maturity  of  his  mind  was 
what  you  would  have  expected  from  his  looks.  That 
his  youthful  languor  gave  place  to  higher  spirits  and 
more  self-assertive  activity  was,  no  doubt,  the  result 
of  a  distinct  improvement  in  health,  and  this  in  turn 
was  undoubtedly  a  result  of  a  life  of  quite  singularly 
happy  and  suitable  conditions.  In  youth,  even  more 
than  most  lads,  he  was  careless  of  his  health,  and  he 
certainly  never  seemed  strong.  At  no  outdoor  game 
was  he  expert,  though  he  could  enjoy  fives  and  racquets, 
and  sometimes  at  school  joined  in  football.  But  at 
indoor  games  he  was  always  good.  From  boyhood 
he  was  a  capital  billiard  player  and  he  had  a  great 
knowledge  of  whist.  When  towards  middle  age  he 
grew  more  robust,  he  took  keen  pleasure  in  shooting 
and  lawn  tennis ;  but  when  at  school  and  college,  he 


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AT  OXFORD  7 

never  joined  at  all  in  the  commonest  open-air  amuse- 
ments— the  cricket  and  rowing. 

"To  the  pursuit  of  university  honours  Elton  never 
really  applied   himself  with  any  devotion.     His  firsts 
classes  in  Moderations  and  the  Final  School  of  Law  and 
History,  his  Vinerian  Scholarship,  and  his  fellowship 
at  Queen's  were  got  without  effort.     At  Balliol  he  con- 
tinued to  be  the  wide  and  somewhat  random  rover 
through  many  kinds  of  literature  he  had  begun  to  be 
at  school,  and  his  scholarship  remained  of  a  doubtfully 
classical    kind,  ill  suited  for  winning  *  Hertfords '  or 
'Irelands.'    His  later  love  of  archaeology  had  not  yet 
shown  itself,  and  to  philology — just  commencing  to  be 
regarded  at  Oxford  as  an  essential  part  of  good  scholar- 
ship— he  paid  small  attention.     The  only  prize  exercise 
he  tried  for  was,  I  think,  the  Newdigate,  and  it  was  an 
open  secret  that  his  poem  on  *  The  Vikings '  was  placed 
first  for  that  prize  by  certainly  not  the  least  eminent 
of   the   judges  —  Matthew    Arnold.     When    odes    in 
honour  of  the  present  Queen  were  called  for  by  the 
University,   on    her  visit  to    Oxford   soon   after    her 
marriage,  Elton's  English  ode  was,  with  one  other, 
selected  for  recitation  out  of  numerous  competitors.     In 
the  Final  School  of  Literae  Humaniores,  Elton  had  not 
studied  the  set  books  carefully  enough  to  give  himself  a 
fair  chance  of  a  first  class  ;  but  he  nearly  got  one,  not- 
withstanding ;  and  when  he  heard  of  his  second,  said 
at  once  that  he  had  time  to  cover  it  by  getting  a  first 
in   Law  and  History,  which   he  proceeded  to  do  in 
remarkably  brilliant  style. 

"  But  however  desultory  was  his  pursuit  of  honours, 
and  however  devious  and  undisciplined  his  reading,  I 
believe  that  Elton  educated  himself  very  effectively  at 
Oxford,  and  left  it  a  remarkably  well-informed  man. 
Of  standard  books.  Burton's  Anatomy  of  Melancholy 
and  Shelley's  poems  were,  I  think,  those  I  oftenest  saw 
him  take  up  ;  but  it  was  by  his  rare  acquaintance  with 


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8  CHARLES   ISAAC  ELTON 

the  less  generally  well-known  periods  of  history  and  of 
literature  that  he  kept  constantly  astonishing  even  his 
most  intimate  friends.  He  had  a  genius,  we  used  to 
say,  for  prying  into  nooks  and  corners,  and  that  love  of 
leaving  the  beaten  track  and  exploring  for  himself, 
which  afterwards  made  him,  as  a  lawyer,  specially 
erudite  in  curious  and  out-of-the-way  branches  of  the 
law,  displayed  itself  early.  Whether  he  was  ever  a 
great  historian  in  the  common  sense  I  am  not  sure,  but 
he  could  describe  delightfully  the  periods  which  par- 
ticularly took  his  fancy.  He  cared  little  for  registering 
facts  about  them,  but  he  imbibed  their  spirit,  and  his 
powerful,  pictorial  imagination  revelled  in  making 
them  alive  again.  All  ballad-literature  had  a  peculiar 
charm  for  him,  and  to  him  was  rich  in  instruction  in 
regard  to  the  peoples  among  whom  it  had  grown  up. 
But  even  the  lightest  literature  of  the  day  did  not 
escape  his  notice,  and  he  had  a  broad  and  human 
tolerance  of  rubbish.  Literally,  he  devoured  books  by 
the  roomful.  Once,  when  he  was  laid  up  by  a  tooth- 
ache, I  remember  his  asking  me  to  bring  him  'some 
novels.'  I  brought  him  a  three-volume  novel  from  the 
library.  'What's  that?^  said  he,  pointing  contemp- 
tuously at  the  three  fat  volumes.  '  I  shall  have  finished 
that  thing  before  you  can  turn  round.  Tell  them  to  send 
me  the  full  of  a  hand-truck.'  And  though  he  ran  so 
rapidly  through  what  he  read,  he  seldom  missed  a  point 
in  it.  In  an  examination  undergone  by  him  (I  think  it 
was  for  a  'Jenkyns'  Exhibition,'  won  by  the  present 
master  of  Balliol,  Dr.  Caird),  the  subject  for  the  English 
essay  was  (in  effect — I  am  not  sure  of  the  precise 
wording),  '  Nationality  as  a  basis  of  political  division.' 
Elton  wrote  an  essay  which  so  exacting  a  critic  as  the 
late  Archdeacon  Edwin  Palmer  pronounced  to  me 
*  excellent — ^a  complete  synopsis  of  the  way  the  whole 
thing  would  work  out.'  Repeating  this  compliment  to 
Elton,  I  remarked  that  I  did  not  know  he  had  ever 


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HIS  SENSE  OF  HUMOUR  9 

given  a  thought  to  the  subject  or  had  read  a  line  upon 
it.  *  Neither  had  I,'  said  he,  *  till  a  few  nights  ago, 
at  the  Union,  I  chanced  to  run  my  eyes  over  some 
magazine  articles,  of  which  two  or  three  bore  straight 
on  this  subject.  They  were  rather  good,  and  I  think  I 
got  all  the  plums  out  of  them  into  my  essay — along 
with  a  little  make-believe  padding  of  my  own.  Fancy 
my  having  taken  in  the  Dons  so  ! '  The  *  Dons '  he 
had  *  taken  in '  were  the  Fellows  of  Balliol,  as  compe- 
tent examiners  as  could  be  found.  Elton  might  be 
trusted  to  pick  the  plums  out  of  whatever  he  glanced 
over.  He  was  the  most  keen-eyed  and  unerring  of 
critics,  and  any  'padding*  put  in  by  him  was  sure  to 
consist  of  acute  and  interesting  observations,  only 
*  make-believe '  in  the  sense  that,  very  possibly,  they 
left  an  impression  of  a  more  thorough  and  painstaking 
mastery  of  the  subject  than  he  had  really  acquired, 
a  trick  of  style  few  writers  would  not  covet. 

** Socially,  Elton  did  not  aim  in  youth  at  a  very  large 
acquaintance,  but  he  was  distinctly  popular  in  his  own 
set.  To  be  so  widely  known  and  such  a  general  favour- 
ite as  he  was  subsequently  in  London,  and  especially 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  would  not  have  seemed 
to  be  in  store  for  him.  His  manner  was  quieter 
and  more  subdued  than  it  afterwards  became,  and  he 
was  as  little  given  to  laughter  as  Mr.  Disraeli  himself. 
But  he  had  in  full  measure  that  quality  which  I 
suppose  is,  among  the  young,  the  most  attractive  of 
all — sense  of  humour.  Indeed,  I  think  he  had  it  in  the 
most  *  all-round '  form  I  ever  met  it.  No  kind  of  joke 
was  lost  upon  him,  and,  among  those  who  knew  him 
well,  I  am  by  no  means  alone  in  thinking  that  he  had 
a  singular  power  of  estimating  at  their  right  values 
all  the  manifold  varieties  of  wit  and  of  humour. 

**And  one  other  quality  I  think  he  also  showed  in 
the  most  *  all-round '  form  I  have  met  it — courage.  In 
regard  to  this  quality  boys  gauge  each  other  with  an 


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lo  CHARLES  ISAAC  ELTON 

exactness  unattainable  in  the  more  artificial  later  life^ 
and,  having  been  able  to  apply  their  tests  to  Elton,  I 
confidently  pronounce  his  to  have  been  as  fearless  a 
nature  as  I  have  known.  I  do  not  of  course  refer  merely 
to  the  courage  which  faces  personal  danger.  In  that  I 
believe  Elton  to  have  abounded ;  but  he  was  strangely 
free,  too,  from  the  subtler  timidities,  which,  making 
men  shrink  from  risk  of  incurring  ridicule  or  of  being 
convicted  of  wrong  judgment,  frighten  them  into  self- 
suppressions  and  pretences.  Elton  always  dared  to  be 
himself.  I  never  knew  him  afraid  of  anybody  or  of 
anything. 

•*Of  Elton's  maturer  years  and  the  more  serious  work 
of  his  life  it  will  be  for  another  and  abler  pen  to  render 
account.  It  has  been  my  privilege  to  be  allowed  to 
record  these  few  memories  of  the  youth  of  one  who,  for 
nearly  half  a  century,  was,  perhaps,  my  most  intimate 
friend.  And  certainly  I  had  full  opportunity  not  only  of 
observing  Elton's  own  early  years,  but  of  comparing 
him,  during  them,  with  others,  who  have  since  been 
tried  by  the  world  and  have  not  been  found  wanting. 
In  Elton's  class  at  Cheltenham  College  were  Mr.  John 
Morley  and  Dr.  Henry  Jackson  of  Cambridge.  Con- 
temporary with  him  at  Balliol  were,  among  those  now 
gone  from  us,  leaving  great  reputations,  Lord  Bowen, 
Mr.  T.  H.  Green  and  Sir  Henry  Jenkyns,  and  very  many 
men,  still  living,  who  have  attained  the  highest  and  most 
varied  distinctions.  Indeed,  I  doubt  whether  even  Balliol 
ever  saw  a  generation  more  remarkable  than  Elton's.  To 
it  belonged  one  living  poet,  who  has  written  most  finely ; 
it  has  given  eminent  judges  to  the  Bench  ;  at  the  head 
of  several  Oxford  Colleges,  and  of  our  two  greatest 
public  schools,  are  members  of  it ;  in  both  branches  of 
the  Legislature  it  has  achieved  distinction,  and  among 
the  officers  of  Parliament  it  can  claim  a  curiously  large 
number  of  the  most  prominent.  In  the  Civil  Service 
it  has  made  its  mark,  and  even  in  the  Army,  although 


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LITERARY  WORK  ii 

it  sent  but  some  half-dozen  recruits,  it  has  scored  a 
signal  success  with  almost  every  one  of  them.  Well,  as 
I  look  back  over  all  these  men  with  the  critical  insight 
which  comes  of  experience,  it  is  easy  to  see  how,  in  the 
practical  qualities  leading  to  fame  and  fortune,  the  tricks 
of  manner  which  win  the  world  and  the  steady  un- 
swerving pursuit  of  single  objects  which  attains  them, 
this  and  that  man  may  have  excelled  the  man  of  whom 
I  write ;  but,  among  them  all,  I  do  not  really  think 
there  was  anyone  of  richer  and  rarer  intellectual  powers, 
of  talents  more  brilliant  and  various  and  original,  or  of 
more  interesting  character  and  personality,  than  Charles 
Elton," 

i 

I  cannot  hope  to  add  to  Mr.  White's  account  any- 
thing of  equal  interest.  It  was  plain  to  all  who  knew 
Mr.  Elton  well  that  he  had  one  attribute  of  genius, 
the  power  of  doing  well,  rapidly,  and  en  se  jouant  (as 
gentle  King  Jamie  said  of  himself),  whatever  he  under- 
took. 

What  he  undertook,  after  his  college  days,  was  not 
often  poetical,  though  he  published  some  charming 
verses  in  Once  a  Week^  at  that  time  adorned  by  the 
genius  of  the  great  artists,  Millais,  Charles  Keene, 
Frederick  Walker,  Sandys,  Leech,  with  one  little  re- 
membered, but  well  worth  remembering,  M.  J.  Lawless, 
and  of  George  du  Maurier.  A  serial,  to  which  Charles 
Reade  and  Mr.  George  Meredith  contributed  novels, 
and  Mr.  Swinburne  a  remarkable  tale  of  the  Armagnac 
wars,  gave  hospitality  to  Mr.  Elton's  verse.  But  his 
main  literary  interest  was  in  the  borderland  of  history, 
archaeology,  law,  and  the  study  of  institutions. 
Though  he  did  everything  easily,  he  did  nothing  in- 
dolently, and  I  remember  how  often  he  sometimes 
rewrote  passages  in  his  valuable  Origins  of  English 
History,  throwing  away  page  after  page  of  manuscript, 
till  he  had  satisfied  himself.     In  his  humour,  his  good- 


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12  CHARLES  ISAAC  ELTON 

ness  of  heart,  his  large  facility,  and  wealth  of  out-of- 
the-way  lore,  he  somewhat  reminded  one  of  Dr.  John- 
son. A  fragment  of  his  Oxford  career  may  be  recalled. 
When  he  won  his  fellowship  at  Queen's  College,  in 
1862,  among  the  competitors  was  Mr.  John  Addington 
Symonds. 

In  1863  he  married  Miss  Mary  Augusta  Strachey, 
his  fellow-worker  in  literature  and  in  the  collection  of 
books  and  of  works  of  art.  In  1864,  after  a  tour  in 
Norway,  he  published  Norway^  the  Road  and  the  Fell. 
He  was  called  to  the  Bar  in  Michaelmas  Term,  1865, 
and  at  once  adopted  the  line  in  which  he  was  pre- 
eminent, the  study  of  early  English  land  laws  and 
institutions.  Of  this  work  the  first-fruits  was  The 
Tenures  of  Kent  (1867).  But  before  the  publication 
of  this  book,  Mr.  Elton's  love  of  hunting  in  the  dusty 
corners  of  history,  and  his  loyalty  to  his  friends,  had 
led  him  to  a  discovery  of  practical  moment.  His  old 
friend,  Mr.  Jowett,  of  Balliol,  was  then  Regius  Professor 
of  Greek,  on  a  salary  of  ;£"40  a  year.  Christ  Church,  it 
was  believed,  owned  the  lands  in  Worcestershire,  which 
were  burdened  by  the  salary  of  the  Chair.  But  this 
burden  appears  to  have  been  a  point  rather  of  tradition 
than  of  knowledge.  Mr.  E.  A.  Freeman  had  been  in 
correspondence  with  Dean  Liddell  on  the  subject,  and 
had  called  his  attention,  in  a  pamphlet,  to  the  point  as  to 
the  lands  in  Worcestershire.  Dean  Liddell,  in  a  letter 
to  The  Times^  challenged  anyone  to  produce  the  deed 
to  which  Mr.  Freeman  had  referred.  For  what  follows 
we  are  indebted  to  a  letter  by  Mr.  Elton  to  Mr.  Free- 
man. That  historian's  statement,  and  the  Dean's 
challenge,  were  the  points  whence  Mr.  Elton  began  his 
researches.  He  thought  that  he  found  a  flaw  in  the 
Dean's  account  of  the  titles  of  **the  House" — a  flaw  of 
which  the  Dean  was  unconscious.  The  House  possessed 
one  deed,  in  which  nothing  was  said  of  the  lands  and 
the  burden   on   them.      But  the  tradition   as  to  the 


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HIS  HAPPY  DISCOVERY  13 

burden  was  mentioned  in  Wedmore's  History.  Wed- 
more  knew,  vaguely,  of  another  deed.  No  trace  or 
memory  of  it  was  discovered  by  Mr.  Elton  at  the  British 
Museum.  At  the  Record  Office  the  authorities  were 
sceptical.  There  was  only  the  first  deed,  already 
familiar  to  Christ  Church.  Mr.  Elton  persevered.  If 
the  second  deed  of  Wedmore's  tradition  could  be  found, 
there  was  money  provided  for  a  suit  in  Chancery. 
Assisted  by  Dr.  Brewer,  the  eminent  historian  of 
Henry  VIIL,  Mr.  Elton  continued  to  pursue  the  chase, 
and  at  last  was  rewarded  by  the  discovery  of  a  roll 
which  was  to  the  purpose,  a  roll  of  which,  apparently, 
no  copy  existed  an3rwhere.  The  roll  attested  the  burden 
on  the  lands  for  the  Regius  Professorship  held  by  Mr. 
Jowett.  By  Dean  Stanley's  desire,  Mr.  Elton  com- 
municated his  discovery  to  The  Times,  and  Christ 
Church  fulfilled  Dean  Liddell's  promise,  and  paid  the 
salary  to  Mr.  Jowett 

Mr.  Elton  must  have  greatly  enjoyed  a  search  so 
congenial,  and  a  discovery  which  so  happily  ended  a 
disagreeable  controversy.  But  I  cannot  remember 
having  heard  him  allude  to  his  triumphant  pursuit  of 
the  missing  roll.  The  delights  of  research  in  manu- 
script are  poignant,  but  are  known  to  few.  Mr.  Elton 
never  wearied  of  them  at  a  period  when  seekers  were 
even  more  rare,  and  when  the  dark  corners  of  history 
were  less  frequently  explored  than  they  are  at  present. 
"  Most  men,"  said  a  Saturday  reviewer  (Feb.  9th,  1867) 
''would  find  it  as  terrible  to  be  alone  in  a  big  room 
with  a  Disgavelling  Act  as  to  be  alone  in  a  railway 
carriage  with  a  man  who  thinks  he  understands  the 
currency."  To  the  vulgar  eye,  gavelkind  seems  to  be 
a  peculiarly  Kentish  custom,  whereby,  a  landowner 
dying  intestate,  his  land  is  equally  divided  among  his 
sons.  "Gavel,"  it  seems,  is  really  nothing  but  rent 
(usually  in  kind  or  in  services)  paid  by  free  tenants. 
Mr.  Elton  proved  that  much  land,  supposed  to  be  held 


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14  CHARLES   ISAAC  ELTON 

in  ^^ gavelkind''  (according  to  the  popular  sense  of  the 
term),  was,  in  fact,  not  so  held ;  either  it  was  not  so 
held  at  the  time  of  the  Norman  Conquest,  or  it  has 
subsequently  been  "  disgavelled  "  by  Royal  Preroga- 
tive, or  by  Act  of  Parliament.  Mr.  Elton's  work,  of 
which  a  brief  and  clear  account  cannot  here  be  given, 
is  lucidity  itself,  and  manifests  a  remarkable  power  of 
dealing  with  original  records,  and  with  complicated 
customs.  Mr,  Elton's  practice  at  the  Bar  was  mainly 
concerned  with  the  laws  of  Real  Property,  a  strange 
historical  palimpsest. 

Mr.  Elton's  interest  in  his  favourite  themes  was  in- 
creased, and  the  spur  to  that  dormant  quality,  his 
ambition,  was  blunted,  when,  in  1869,  he  succeeded  to 
his  uncle's  estate  of  Whitestaunton,  in  Somerset. 
From  his  boyhood  he  had  been  devoid  of  ambition ; 
the  work  which  he  did  he  undertook  because  he  liked 
it.  Quite  probably,  had  he  not  become  the  squire  of 
Whitestaunton,  he  would  have  risen  to  the  higher 
honours  of  his  profession.  But  these  were,  to  him,  by 
no  means  a  thing  to  be  snatched  at,  and  Whitestaunton 
made  him  extremely  happy.  The  ancient  house  lies  in 
a  deep  green  hollow  of  the  Somerset  hills,  below  it  are 
the  fish-ponds  of  the  old  Chantry,  and  beneath  these 
the  foundations  of  a  small  Roman  villa  excavated  by 
the  squire.  The  estate  contains  a  miniature  history  of 
Southern  Britain ;  neolithic  implements  and  tools  of 
bronze  are  occasionally  found ;  then  comes  the  villa, 
with  its  traces  of  the  Roman  occupation,  while  the 
name,  Whitestaunton,  speaks  of  St.  White,  an  early 
saint  of  the  English  conquerors  of  the  native  Celts. 
The  church  is  dedicated  to  St.  Andrew,  and  was 
ministered  to,  of  old,  by  the  Guild  of  St.  Mary  of 
Whitestaunton.  At  the  Reformation  the  Guild  was 
confiscated,  and  the  Lady  Anne  Brett,  who  declined  to 
believe  in  the  shifting  creeds  of  Henry  VIH.,  lost  her 
lands,  and  her  ^'fair  old  stone  mansion."    These  were 


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MULTIFARIOUS  STUDIES  15 

later  restored  to  her  familyi  and  remained  in  the  hands 
of  the  Bretts  till  1723,  when  they  were  acquired  by  the 
Eltons.  The  house  had  been  partly  remodelled  in 
the  Tudor  times,  but  is  essentially  a  very  ancient 
structure,  lacking  nothing  but  a  ghost  to  add  a  pleas- 
ing terror.  The  fish-ponds  still  contain  large  and 
highly  educated  trout,  which  have  ascended  from  a 
burn  flowing  into  the  Yarty,  "the  roaring  Yarty  "  of 
Drayton.  The  scene  is  typically  English,  and  an  ideal 
home  for  an  historian  and  archaeologist. 

The  little  stream,  and  the  changes  of  the  floods  and 
frosts  of  centuries,  have  broken  up  the  baths  and  hypo- 
causts  and  mosaic  flooring  of  the  Roman  villa,  which 
Mr.  Elton  described  in  a  paper  published  by  77ie 
Academy  (September  ist,  1883).  Not  many  rflics  were 
found,  mainly  a  few  coins  of  the  fourth  century  and 
fragments  of  the  red  "Samian"  ware.  Probably  the 
villa  was  the  home  of  a  Roman  official  connected  with 
the  ironworks  of  the  period;  and,  judging  from  the 
amount  of  ashes,  the  house  may  have  been  burned  in 
a  rising  of  the  British  workers,  or  by  the  English 
conquerors.  Here  Mr.  Elton  lived  a  hospitable  and 
learned  life,  and  the  writer  has  many  pleasant  recollec- 
tions of  fishing  in  the  Yarty  and  the  ponds,  of  delving 
for  undiscovered  treasures  in  the  villa,  and  of  lawn 
tennis  on  the  lawn.  Mr.  Elton  was  much  more  addicted 
to  shooting  than  to  the  contemplative  man's  recreation, 
and  was  an  active,  nay,  an  indefatigable,  player  at 
lawn  tennis.  He  was  indeed  an  ideal  squire  of  the  old 
school,  and  in  his  dominions  was  the  ^^Good  Tyrant" 
of  Plato's  dream — just,  generous,  and  always  accessible 
to  his  rural  neighbours.  In  an  obituary  notice  it  is 
said  that  he  had  been  regarded  as  the  model  of  the 
squire  in  Mrs.  Ward's  Robert  Elsmere — ^a  most  im- 
probable suggestion,  as  he  did  not  concern  himself  with 
the  criticism  of  the  Book  of  Daniel,  and  was  incapable 
of  shaking  the  faith  of  the  most  innocent  clergyman. 


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i6  CHARLES   ISAAC  ELTON 

His  studies  were  multifarious, -but  not  in  the  field  of 
biblical  conjecture.  Doubtless  the  best  representative 
of  his  work  is  The  Origins  of  English  History^  a  rich 
repository  of  ancient  geographical  lore  and  a  valuable 
exploration  of  the  dim  hints  of  classical  knowledge 
about  our  island.  Perhaps  not  less  interesting  is  his 
essay  on  Market  Rights  and  Tolls,  contributed  in  a 
Royal  Commission  of  1888.  In  working  at  the  early 
history  of  Scotland  the  present  writer  found  Mr.  Elton's 
essay  on  Markets  and  Burghs  invaluable,  and  his  orally 
communicated  criticism  of  the  greatest  service.  He 
was,  indeed,  an  encyclopa^ia  of  knowledge  on  all 
manner  of  topics — classical,  archaeological,  biblio- 
graphical, artistic,  geographical.  '^  Reading  makes 
a  full  man,"  and  his  reading  was  as  wide  as  his 
criticism  of  evidence  was  keen.  His  Career  of  Columbus 
(1892)  is  full  of  the  misty  legends  of  **  isles  indiscover- 
able  in  the  unheard-of  West,"  while  the  thin  vein  of 
historic  gold  is  acutely  disengaged  and  displayed.  In 
the  matter  of  art  he  was  fond,  chiefly,  of  the  faience 
of  Rhodes,  Persia,  and  Anatolia.  A  beautiful  and 
varied  collection  decorated  the  large  studio,  converted 
into  a  drawing-room,  of  his  house  in  Cranley  Place ; 
here,  too,  were  some  of  the  finest  of  his  books  and 
illuminated  manuscripts.  The  rest  had  no  idle  life  on  the 
shelves  of  his  study  and  his  library  at  Whitestaunton. 
The  pottery  is  catalogued  (1901),  as  is  the  library,  in  a 
volume  dear  to  book  collectors.  His  own  work  on  great 
book  collectors  (1893)  was  undertaken  in  collaboration 
with  Mrs.  Elton.  Indeed,  there  was  none  of  his  work 
in  which  she  had  not  her  part ;  and  it  is  at  once  im- 
possible to  write  about  their  long  companionship, 
and  to  give  any  fair  idea  of  Mr.  Elton's  life,  without 
entering  on  a  subject  too  sacred. 

Happy  nations,  they  say,  have  no  history,  and  there 
is  little  biography  in  the  prosperous  life  of  a  happy 
man.     Mr.  Elton's  politics  were  of  no  extreme  com- 


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IN  AND  OUT  OF  PARLIAMENT  17 

plexion.  If  his  ideas  were  Liberal  in  early  youth,  and 
if  in  1883  he  consented  to  stand  as  Conservative  candi- 
date for  West  Somerset,  the  change  was  only  due  to 
the  usual  effect  of  years.  He  defeated  his  opponent, 
Lord  Kilcoursie,  in  February,  1884,  and  in  March  of 
that  year  made  four  '' maiden  speeches"  on  the  same 
afternoon.  Punch  observed  humorously  on  this  novel 
performance,  but  the  subjects  of  the  speeches  were 
legal  Bills,  concerned  with  matters  in  which  Mr.  Elton 
was  an  expert.  As  a  rule  he  seldom  spoke,  only  when 
he  had  something  useful  to  say,  which  perhaps  no  one 
else  could  have  said.  He  was  unseated  by  Sir  Thomas 
Acland  in  1885,  was  returned  again  in  1886,  and  re- 
tired at  the  General  Election  of  1892.  For  him  the 
House  had  none  of  the  strange  fascination  which  it 
exercises  over  so  many  men,  victory  did  not  elate  nor 
defeat  depress  him.  He  had  been  heard  to  say  that 
*'the  Age  of  the  Antonines" — ^the  age  of  peace  and 
prosperity — "  is  ended,"  but  history  had  taught  him  to 
acquiesce  in  the  vicissitudes  of  national  fortunes. 
When  he  spoke  it  was  without  nervousness,  and  with- 
out rhetoric,  but  with  lucid  and  genial  humour.  His 
interests  in  the  past,  in  sport,  in  literature,  in  law,  and 
in  the  happiness  of  his  tenants  and  neighbours,  re- 
mained what  they  had  ever  been  till  his  death,  after  a 
brief  illness,  caused  by  a  chill,  in  April  igoo.  The  loss 
to  all  who  knew  him  in  any  capacity,  as  landlord, 
friend,  or  neighbour,  was  great;  he  had  not  chosen 
the  path  of  any  ambition,  but  had  modestly  and  effect- 
ually done  his  duty,  and  the  work  which  he  found  to 
his  hand.  That  his  powers  might  have  carried  him  to 
higher  place  is  certain,  but  ambition  is  not  a  duty, 
and  no  man  can  be  justly  styled  ** indolent"  who  did 
the  laborious  tasks  that  were  his  pleasure,  and  who 
communicated  the  pleasure  and  the  knowledge  of 
which  he  was  so  liberal.  If  he  '' warmed  both  hands 
at  the  fire  of  life,"  he  diffused  the  radiance  and  the 
c 


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i8 


CHARLES  ISAAC  ELTON 


glow ;  and  is  remembered  as  a  man  just,  kind,  genial, 
and  generous  would  desire  to  be.  One  recalls  him, 
and  his  friendly  welcome,  with  his  pipe  among  his 
books  and  papers,  in  his  London  study ;  or  on  the  low 
hills,  and  among  the  ancient  trees  of  his  rural  home, 
one  remembers  the  happiness  afforded  by  his  hospi- 
tality, his  wisdom,  and  his  wit,  his  fragments  of  for- 
gotten lore  ;  for  to  him,  as  to  Tom  Hearne,  the  Oxford 
antiquary.  Time  might  have  said,  **  Whatever  I  forget 
you  learn." 

Of  his  Shakespearean  studies,  this  is  not  the  place 
for  criticism  ;  but  the  book  seems  likely  to  be  the  most 
widely  appreciated  of  his  works.  For  once  his  erudi- 
tion and  acuteness  are  expended  on  a  theme  which  does 
not  interest  special  students  alone,  but  all  lovers  of 

English  literature. 

ANDREW  LANG 

January,  1904 


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FACTS  AND  TRADITIONS  RELATING 
TO  SHAKESPEARE'S  EARLY  LIFE 


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22  SHAKESPEARE'S  EARLY  LIFE 

record,  nor  does  it  contain  any  reference  to  a  second  or 
third  marriage.  We  here  see  the  real  origin  of  Better- 
ton's  account  of  the  "  woolstapler  with  ten  children," 
which  Oldys  copied  in  his  early  note- 
There  was  also  a  great  dispute  as  to  the  exact  date  of 
Shakespeare's  birth,  and  consequently  of  his  age  when 
he  died.  Langbaine,  whose  book  was  printed  in  1691, 
took  a  copy  of  the  Stratford  epitaph  from  Dugdale's 
Antiquities  of  Warwickshire  to  the  effect  that  the  poet 
died  on  the  23rd  of  April,  "in  the  year  of  our  Lord 
1616,  and  of  his  age  fifty-three."  Both  Langbaine  and 
Oldys  took  this  as  meaning  that  he  was  fifty-three  years 
of  age ;  whereas,  if  they  had  seen  the  baptismal 
certificate,  they  would  have  known  that  he  had  just 
completed  the  fifty-second,  and  was  beginning  the  fifty- 
third  year  of  his  age.  The  eflfect  was  to  antedate  his 
birth  by  a  twelvemonth.  The  words  of  Oldys  are  taken 
with  little  alteration  from  Rowe  and  Betterton  ;  and  in 
describing  the  poet  he  says;  **The  son  of  Mr.  John 
Shakespeare,  woolstapler ;  was  the  eldest  of  ten  children, 
born  23  of  April,  1563;  was  brought  up  in  his  youth 
to  his  father's  business,"  etc.  Opposite  to  the  "  Aet.  53  " 
in  the  text  he  wrote  the  words,  "Consequently  born 
in  1563."  On  this,  however,  Malone  remarked  :  "He 
was  born  in  1564.  This  inscription  led  Oldys  into 
the  mistake.  He  died  on  his  birthday  and  had  exactly 
closed  his  fifty-second  year."  Mr.  Bolton  Corney 
showed  in  an  essay  on  the  assumed  birthday  of  Shake- 
speare, that  Malone  was  entirely  depending  on  Joseph 
Greene,  the  master  of  the  free  school  at  Stratford  from 
1735  *o  1 77 1,  and  afterwards  Vicar  of  Welford.  Mr. 
Greene,  a  sufficiently  learned  man,  took  an  extract  from 
the  baptismal  register,  stating  that  William,  son  of 
John  Shakespeare,  was  baptised  the  26th  of  April,  1564, 
and  added  in  his  own  handwriting  that  the  birth  was 
on  the  23rd.*  "  He  was  born  three  days  before,"  says 
Malone  ;  "  I  have  said  this  on  the  faith  of  Mr.  Greene, 


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HIS   BIRTHDAY  23 

who  I  find  made  the  extract  from  the  register  which  Mr. 
West  gave  to  Mr.  Steevens  ;  but  qusere,  how  did  Mr. 
Greene  ascertain  this  fact  ?  "  ^ 

It  has  often  been  said  that  there  was  a  practice  in 
those  days  of  christening  infants  three  days  after  birth ; 
and  Mr.  Knight  even  maintained  that  infancy  was 
surrounded  with  such  perils,  when  medical  science  was 
imperfect,  that  we  might  well  believe  in  Shakespeare's 
first  seeing  the  light  **only  a  day  or  two  previous  to 
this  legal  record  of  his  existence."*  There  are  probably 
as  many  exceptions  as  examples  to  be  found  of  this 
rule,  if  it  ever  existed.  It  was  occasionally  of  great 
importance  that  a  child  should  be  christened  without 
delay.*  But  in  the  absence  of  special  circumstances,  we 
should  go  by  the  rule  in  the  Prayer-book.  Parents  are 
now  admonished  to  bring  the  child  to  church  on  the 
first  or  second  Sunday  after  its  birth,  or  some  other 
holy-day  falling  between,  unless  there  is  grave  cause  to 
the  contrary.  This  rule,  though  hard  of  enforcement 
in  our  rigorous  climate,  is  less  severe  than  that  which 
prevailed  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth.  The 
admonition  of  the  Prayer-book  of  1559  was  that 
baptism  should  not  be  deferred  any  longer  than  the 
Sunday  or  other  holy-day  next  after  the  birth,  "unlesse 
upon  a  great  and  reasonable  cause,  to  be  declared 
to  the  Curate,  and  by  hym  approved."  Let  us  apply 
this    doctrine    to    Shakespeare's    case.      Taking    the 

^  See  Malone,  Shakespeare ^  ed.  Boswell,  1821,  ii.  610;  also  Bolton 
Comey,  An  Argument  on  the  assumed  Birthday  of  Shakspere  reduced  to 
shape^  A.D.  1864,  pp.  16. 

^  Charles  Knight,  William  Shakspere^  a  Bu^raphy^  1843,  p.  26. 

'  A  husband's  rights,  for  instance,  over  his  wife's  land  depended  in 
some  districts  on  the  fact  that  issue  was  born  alive.  There  b  an  ancient 
inquisition  about  lands  at  Boughton-Aluph,  in  Kent,  set  forth  in  the 
Caiendarium  Genealogicum  (ed.  C.  Roberts,  1865,  ii.  469;  21  Edw.  I.), 
where  the  jury  found  "  that  one  Joanna  de  Laverton  bore  a  daughter  at 
dawn  on  the  day  of  her  death,  which  daughter  the  rector  baptised  at 
the  daybreak,  alive  and  crying,  and  she  lived  from  the  time  of  her  birth 
unti  sunrise  of  the  same  day,  when  she  died.' 


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24 


SHAKESPEARE'S  EARLY  LIFE 


ordinary  tables  for  finding  Easter,  we  see  that  Easter 
Sunday  fell  on  April  9th,  in  the  Julian  year  1564, 
or  1564-5  old  style.  The  next  holy-day  is  Wednesday, 
April  19th,  the  festival  of  Archbishop  Alphege.  The 
next  is  Sunday,  April  23rd>  St.  George's  Day ;  the  next 
again  is  Tuesday,  April  25th,  St.  Mark's  Day;  and 
there  are  no  other  festivals  during  the  rest  of  the 
month.  The  following  table  will  show  the  state  of  the 
calendar. 


April,  1564  Julian;  i564-5«  English.  Golden  Number,  7.  Sunday  Letter,  BA. 

Day. 
16 

Lktter. 
A 

Wbsk. 

DAY. 

Festivals. 

Sun. 

First  Sunday  after  Easter.    (Low  Sunday.) 

17 

b 

Mon. 

18 

c 

Tues. 

19 

d 

Wed. 

Alphege,  Archbishop  and  Martyr. 

20 

e 

Thurs. 

21 

f 

Fri. 

22 

1 

Sat. 

Inventio  Sti  Dionysii. 

23 

Sun. 

Second  Sunday  after  Easter.  St.  George,  Martyr. 

24 

b 

Mon. 

St  Mark's  Eve. 

25 

c 

Tues. 

St  Mark,  Evangelist    (Black  Crosses.) 

26 

d 

Wed. 

Morrow  of  St  Mark.  (Baptism  of  Shakespeare.) 

27 

e 

Thurs. 

28 

f 

Fri. 

Vitalis,  Martyr. 

29 

g 

Sat 

30 

A 

Sun. 

Third  Sunday  after  Easter.    Erkenwald,  Bp. 

The  christening  would  actually  have  taken  place  on 
the  Sunday,  St.  George's  Day,  if  the  child  were  born 
on  any  day  between  the  i6th  and  20th  inclusive.  If 
the  birth  was  on  the  Friday  or  Saturday,  the  strict 
letter  of  the  rule  would  fix  the  baptism  for  St.  Mark's 
Day ;  but  who  would  have  chosen  for  such  a  purpose 
the  day  of  the  **  Great  Litany,"  when  all  the  crosses 
and  altars  used  to  be  draped  in  black,  the  festival  itself 
being  commonly  known  as  **  Black  Crosses  "  ?  It  may 
be  said  that  these  observances  had  been  abolished  at 
the  Reformation ;  but  we  should  answer  that  it  was 
only  six  years  since  Protestantism  had  been  re-estab- 


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HIS   BIRTHDAY  25 

lished,  that  Mary  Shakespeare  herself  was  almost 
certainly  a  Roman  Catholic  during  the  period  from 
'553  to  1558,  and  that  her  father,  Robert  Arden, 
showed  the  sincerity  of  his  own  belief  by  the  bequest 
of  his  soul  to  God  ''and  to  our  blessed  Lady,  Saint 
Mary,  and  to  all  the  holy  company  of  heaven/'^  But 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  any  history  of  the  Calendar  will 
show  that  St.  Mark's  Day  continued  to  be  "prolific  in 
superstitions"  long  after  the  Reformation  was  com- 
plete. Brand  collected  a  vast  quantity  of  folk-lore 
about  the  ghostly  company  of  those  who  were  to  die 
within  the  year  walking  through  the  churchyard  as 
soon  as  that  fatal  day  began.'  Hampson  made  a 
similar  collection  in  his  account  of  the  Mediaeval 
Calendar.  >  Pennant  said  that  in  North  Wales  no 
farmer  would  ''hold  his  team"  on  that  day,  for  fear 
of  losing  one  of  the  oxen.  "  In  the  year  of  our  Lord 
1589,"  says  Vaughan  in  his  Golden  Grave^  "I  being 
as  then  but  a  boy,  do  remember  that  an  ale-wife, 
making  no  exception  of  days,  would  needs  brew  upon 
St.  Mark's  days ;  but  lo,  the  marvellous  work  of  God  I 
while  she  was  thus  labouring,  the  top  of  the  chimney 
took  fire,  and,  before  it  could  be  quenched,  her  house 
was  quite  burnt.  Surely,  a  gentle  warning  to  them  that 
violate  and  profane  forbidden  days ! "  The  same  ob- 
jection, of  course,  would  have  applied  if  the  boy  were 
born  on  St.  George's  Day,  with  the  additional  grave 
cause  for  postponement  of  the  baptism,  that  there  was 
only  one  clear  day  between  the  Sunday  and  the  un- 
lucky or  forbidden  festival.  The  result  is  that  we  are 
left  in  some  uncertainty ;  but  it  seems  clear,  at  least, 
that  Shakespeare  was  born  either  on  Friday,  April 
2ist^  I564>  or  on  the  Saturday  or  Sunday  following. 

^  See  copy  of  will  in  Halliwell-Phillipps,  Outlines,  ii.  53. 
»  Brand,  Popular  Antiquities,  ed.  Sir  H.  Ellis,  I  192-6 ;  where  the 
references  to  Pennant  and  Vaughan  will  likewise  be  found. 
'  Hampsoo,  Medii  jEvi  Kalendarium,  i.  3x9-25. 


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26  SHAKESPEARE'S  EARLY  LIFE 


The  first  great  event  in  Shakespeare's  life  was  his 
marriage,  which  (as  it  must  be  presumed)  was  solemn- 
ised in  the  year  1582.  The  place  of  marriage  is 
unknown.  The  Christian  name  of  his  wife  and  her 
age — more  than  seven  years  in  advance  of  his  own — are 
known  only  by  the  inscription  on  her  tomb.  That  her 
surname  was  Hathway  or  Hathaway  is  inferred  from 
a  vague  phrase  or  two  in  her  granddaughter's  will. 
But  the  early  biographers  all  agreed  that  Anne 
Shakespeare  was  the  daughter  of  one  Hathaway,  a  sub- 
stantial yeoman  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Stratford  ;  and 
the  original  statement  is  supported  by  the  evidence 
which  has  been  since  collected.  The  only  dispute 
remaining  open  is  whether  she  belonged  to  the  Hatha- 
ways  of  Stratford,  or  to  those  whose  home  was  in  the 
adjoining  parish  of  Weston,  on  the  left  side  of  the 
Avon. 

Malone  at  one  time  thought  that  she  was  that  Anne 
Hathaway  of  Shottery  who  had  married  William 
Wilson  in  1580,^  but  soon  found  the  idea  was  erroneous. 
The  coincidence  between  the  names  continued,  never- 
theless, to  be  the  source  of  mistakes.  Mr.  Greene 
**  imagined  that  our  poet's  wife  was  of  Shottery  "  ;  and 
he  was  induced  to  this  belief,  as  Malone  supposed,  by 
finding  notices  in  the  register  about  '^  Richard  Hatha- 
way, otherwise  Gardner,  of  Shottery  "  and  his  descend- 
ants. If  he  had  looked  nearer  home,  he  would  have 
found  Hathaways  in  Luddington  or  Weston-on-Avon, 
both  almost  within  sight  of  his  vicarage.  Mr.  Greene 
jumped  to  the  conclusion  that  the  "cottage,"  or  farm- 
house, in  Shottery  belonging  to  the  Misses  Tyler,  and 
before  them  to  an  old  Mr.  Quiney,  might  have  been 

'  Stratford  marriag^e  register,  1579-80,  in  Halliwell-Phillipps,  u,s.,  ii. 
187  ;  see  Malone's  Shaiespeare,  u,s,f  ii.  113,  note  7. 


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ANNE  HATHAWAY  27 

settled  on  Judith  Shakespeare  as  part  of  her  mother's 
property  upon  her  marriage  with  Tom  Quiney ;  all 
which  things  were  easily  disproved,  but  soon  took 
a  new  lease  of  life  among  the  roots  of  the  local 
traditions.^ 

At  one  time  Malone  thought  that  Anne  Hathaway 
was  the  child  of  the  other  Richard  Hathaway,  of 
Shottery,  though  the  evidence  was  necessarily  defi- 
cient. "There  is  no  entry  of  her  baptism,  the  register 
not  commencing  till  1558,  two  years  after  she  was 
born."  He  came  round,  however,  to  the  opinion  that 
she  was  not  of  Shottery  at  all,  but  of  the  family  that 
held  lands  in  Luddington,  one  of  the  Stratford  hamlets, 
and  owned  a  small  freehold  patrimony  in  the  adjoining 
parish  of  Weston,  across  the  Gloucestershire  boundary. 
There  were  persons  of  the  name  of  Hathaway  farming 
Sir  John  Conway's  lands  at  Luddington  in  the  reign 
of  Elizabeth,  and  the  name  continued  upon  the  estate 
rolls  till  about  the  year  1775.  Here  then,  says  Malone, 
as  a  final  decision,  it  is  not  improbable  that  Shakespeare 
found  his  wife.  The  suggestion  has  been  improved 
by  "a  so-called  tradition"  that  their  marriage  took 
place  at  Luddington,  for  which  there  is  no  evidence 
of  any  kind.  And  Mr.  Halliwell-Phillipps^  was  of 
opinion  that  the  notion  of  Anne's  residence  at  Ludding- 
ton should  be  summarily  dismissed.  There  can  be  no 
doubt,  however,  that  she  came  from  a  yeoman's  family 
at  Weston  ;  and  whether  her  family  held  a  farmhouse 
on  Sir  John  Conway's  property  across  the  river  or  not 
is  a  matter  of  very  little  importance. 

Great  efforts  have  been  made  to  connect  her  with  the 
last-mentioned  Richard  Hathaway  of  Shottery.  Mr. 
Halliwell-Phillipps  quotes  an  unpublished  version  of 
Rowe's  Life  of  Shakespeare  {ante  1766),  now  in  the 

^  See  quotations  from  Greene's  unpublished  version  of  Rowe's  bio- 
graphy, in  Halliwell-Phillipps,  «f.,  iSgr^. 
«  Id.,  183. 


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28  SHAKESPEARE'S  EARLY  LIFE 

British  Museum,  for  the  statement  that  her  father's 
name  was  John,  and  says  that  Jordan  described  her  as 
**a  daughter  of  Samuel  Hathaway."^  It  is  not  likely, 
he  adds,  that  there  was  any  satisfactory  evidence  in 
favour  of  either  of  these  '^  nominal  ascriptions,"  and 
we  shall  find  the  same  remark  applicable  to  the  case  of 
the  various  Hathaways  of  Shottery. 

Richard  Hathaway 's  wilP  contained  a  legacy  to  his 
daughter  Agnes,  besides  a  gift  to  another  Agnes, 
daughter  of  Thomas  Hathaway,  whose  relationship  to 
the  testator  is  unknown.  It  is  pointed  out,  moreover, 
that  Anne  Hathaway  was  a  common  name  in  Shottery ; 
a  person  of  that  name  was  married,  as  we  have  seen,  to 
William  Wilson ;  and  Bartholomew,  Richard  Hatha- 
way*s  eldest  son,  had  a  daughter  Anne,  who  married 
Richard  Edwardes.  The  poet's  wife,  said  Malone, 
might  have  been  Bartholomew's  sister,  though  he  did 
not  mention  her  in  his  will ;  but  the  suggestion  was 
admitted  to  be  improbable. 

It  has  been  surmised  that  she  was  the  same  person 
as  Richard  Hathaway's  daughter  Agnes,  for  whom  a 
marriage  portion  was  provided  by  his  will.  That 
would  account,  it  is  said,  for  her  father's  friend  taking 
part  in  the  application  for  a  licence  before  her  marriage, 
for  his  using  a  seal  with  Richard  Hathaway's  initials 
upon  the  same  occasion,  and  for  her  acquaintance  with 
Hathaway's  shepherd,  Thomas  Whittington,  who  said 
in  his  will  (1601)  that  Mrs.  Shakespeare  owed  him  forty 
shillings.*  But  these  are  only  subsidiary  details.  The 
point  to  be  proved  is  that  Agnes  and  Anne  were  used 
as  two  forms  of  one  name.     Mr.  Halliwell-Phillipps^ 

» Id,,  186. 

^  Printed  in  Halliwell-Phillipps,  «/.,  195-6,  with  other  extracts  from 
wills  and  registers  relating  to  the  Hathaway  families. 

'  Halliwell-Phillipps,  «/.,  186,  note  la  See  also  Richard  Hathaway's 
will,  "Item,  I  owe  unto  Thomas  Whittingfton,  my  sheepherd,  fower 
poundes  sixe  shillinges  eight  pence." 

*  Id,,  i84-5»  notes. 


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HIS  MARRIAGE  29 

thought  they  were  "sometimes  convertible."  He 
shows  that  the  pet  name  Annice  (Annys,  Annes)  was 
used  for  both  without  much  distinction ;  that  the  person 
called  ** Agnes,  daughter  of  Thomas  Hathaway*'  in 
the  yeoman's  will  is  named  Anne  in  the  parish  register ; 
and  that  Philip  Henslowe  spoke  of  his  wife  as  Agnes 
in  his  will,  but  that  she  appeared  as  Anne  in  the  Dul- 
wich  register,  and  also  in  the  inscription  on  her  tomb- 
stone. 

The  names  in  reality  appear  to  be  quite  distinct. 
Agnes,  or  Agneta,  was  one  of  the  earliest  English 
names;  it  was  used  in  honour  of  the  saint  whose 
martyrdom  and  ** second  appearance"  were  com- 
memorated on  the  2 1  St  of  January  and  the  octave 
following.  The  other  name  was  not  much  in  use 
before  the  Reformation.  It  is  supposed  to  refer,  not 
to  the  festival  of  July  26th,  but  to  an  Eastern  saint 
very  little  known  here  till  the  arrival  of  Queen  Anne 
of  Bohemia.  Mr.  Chandler  noticed,  in  his  edition  of 
the  Cressingham  Court-rolls,  that  Alice,  Agnes,  and 
Margaret  were  anciently  the  favourite  names  for 
women.  Agnes  occurs  fourteen  times  in  the  rolls, 
and  Alice  sixteen  times,  but  there  is  only  one  Anne 
in  the  whole  series.  Moreover,  the  subject  of  "mis- 
nomer" was  so  important  in  our  early  law  that  it  is 
easy  to  bring  together  authorities  on  the  point.  There 
are  several  relevant  cases  in  the  Year-Books  and  Abridg- 
ments. As  early  as  the  thirty-third  of  Henry  VI.  it  was 
decided  that  Anne  and  Agnes  are  distinct  baptismal 
names  and  not  convertible,  so  that  if  an  action  was 
brought  against  John  and  his  wife  Agnes,  and  the 
wife's  name  was  Anne,  the  variance  was  essential  and 
could  not  be  amended.  Two  other  cases  are  reported 
by  Croke.  In  King  v.  King,  decided  in  the  forty-second 
Elizabeth,  the  Court  resolved  that  Agnes  and  Anne 
are  several  names,  and  that  a  mistake  between  them 
could  not  be  amended  after  a  verdict.     In  Griffith  v. 


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30  SHAKESPEARE'S  EARLY  LIFE 

Sir  Hugh  Middleton,  in  the  fifteenth  year  of  James  L, 
the  Chief  Justice  said  that  "Joan  and  Jane  are  both 
one  name,  but  Agnes  and  Anne^  Gillian  and  Julian, 
are  different."^ 

The  suggestion  may  therefore  be  dismissed  that  the 
poet  married,  under  the  name  of  Anne,  an  Agnes 
Hathaway  of  Shottery.  It  would,  indeed,  have  been 
somewhat  difficult  to  prove  that  his  wife  was  a  Hath- 
away at  all,  if  it  were  not  for  the  bond  relating  to 
their  marriage  which  Sir  Thomas  Phillipps  found  at 
Worcester,  and  for  the  recognition  by  Lady  Barnard 
of  the  Weston  Hathaways  as  her  kinsfolk.  There  is, 
we  may  say,  no  reasonable  doubt  that  Anne  belonged 
to  a  Gloucestershire  family,  but  whether  she  was 
remotely  connected  with  the  great  Gloucestershire 
Hathaways  is  a  very  different  question.  There  are 
many  records  showing  that  the  Hathaways  were  im- 
portant people  in  the  Forest  of  Dean  from  the  twelfth 
to  the  fourteenth  century.  A  William  Hathaway  held 
a  manor  in  Lydney  in  the  tenth  year  of  Henry  11.  The 
Pleas  of  the  Crown  for  Gloucester  in  1221  show  that 
Gilbert  Hathaway  and  others  beat  and  maimed  a  certain 
Hugo  Chark,  who  was  probably  a  disturber  of  the 
Forest.  A  William  Hathaway  was  one  of  the  two 
owners  of  the  parish  of  Ruardean  in  the  reign  of 
Edward  I.  A  Ralf  Hathaway  owned  the  manor 
of  Hathaways  at  Minsterworth  in  the  next  reign. 
Another  Hathaway  was  appointed  Keeper  of  the 
Forest ;  and  several  instances  of  the  same  kind  might 
be  added. 

But  when  we  consider  that  nothing  was  heard  of  this 
family  in  later  times,  and  that  the  Forest  of  Dean  was  at 
the  other  end  of  the  county,  we  must  admit  that  there 
is  at  present  no  means  of  connecting  them  with  the 
family  at  Weston-on-Avon.  It  should  also  be  re- 
membered   that  Weston    is   close   to   Stratford,   and 

*  Crake's  Reports^  ed.  Leach,  1790-a,  i.  776;  ti.  425. 


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HIS  MARRIAGE  31 

therefore  not  far  from  the  old  Heath-way,  which,  as  we 
suspect,  gave  a  surname  to  the  various  Hathaways  in 
that  neighbourhood. 

The  questions  raised  about  the  licence  and  bond 
relating  to  the  poet's  marriage  are  interesting  in  them- 
selves; but  it  must  be  remembered  that  they  do  not 
relate  to  the  time  at  which  the  marriage  was  contracted, 
but  only  to  a  detail  of  the  ceremony  at  which  it  was 
solemnised. 

We  may  say  at  once  that  there  is  no  reason  to 
suppose  that  Shakespeare  and  his  wife  had  made 
an  irregular  or  clandestine  marriage,  though  they 
appear  to  have  been  united  by  a  civil  marriage  con- 
tract some  time  before  the  ceremony  was  performed  in 
face  of  the  Church.  We  should  distinguish  between 
regular  and  irregular  contracts.  A  contract  of  future 
espousals  was  regular,  but  it  did  not  amount  to  marriage, 
being  nothing  more  in  reality  than  a  mutual  covenant 
to  be  married  at  a  future  time.  A  contract  of  present 
espousals,  on  the  contrary,  was  a  legal  marriage.  The 
man  said,  "I  take  thee  for  my  wife,**  and  the  woman 
answered,  *'I  take  thee  for  my  husband,**  or  to  that 
effect,  before  witnesses,  and  with  the  gift  of  a  ring  or 
some  other  symbolical  object.  A  contract  of  this  kind 
might  legally  be  made  by  a  boy  over  fourteen  or  a  girl 
over  twelve ;  but  it  was  provided  by  the  looth  canon  that 
infants  under  twenty-one  required  the  express  consent 
of  their  parents  and  guardians.  As  Shakespeare  was 
only  eighteen  years  old,  though  his  bride  was  twenty- 
six,  it  follows  that  John  Shakespeare's  consent  was 
obtained.  The  congregation  was  frequently  warned 
that  such  civil  marriages  ought  to  be  contracted 
publicly,  and  before  several  witnesses.  If  these  rules 
were  broken,  the  offenders  were  liable  to  the  punish- 
ments for  clandestine  marriage,  such  as  fine,  im- 
prisonment, or  excommunication ;  and  the  victim 
might  be  condemned  to  walk,   like  the  Duchess  of 


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32  SHAKESPEARE'S  EARLY   LIFE 

Gloucester,  in  a  white  sheet,  with  bare  feet  and  a 
taper  alight: — 

**  Methinks  I  should  not  thus  be  led  along, 
Mail'd  up  in  shame,  with  papers  on  my  back  ; 
And  foUow'd  with  a  rabble  that  rejoice 
To  see  my  tears  and  hear  my  deep-fet  groans."^ 

The  civil  marriage  required  the  religious  solemnity  to 
give  the  parties  their  legal  status  as  to  property ;  but 
otherwise  it  was  both  valid  and  regular.  The  clandes- 
tine marriage  was  valid,  but  all  parties  could  be 
punished  for  their  offence  against  the  law.  It  was  of 
that  kind  which  has  been  made  familiar  to  us  by  the 
Fleet  Street  registers.  A  bankrupt  parson  who  dreaded 
no  fine  or  fall,  or  some  irregular  practitioner  like  Sir 
Oliver  Martext,  would  unite  a  couple  of  runaways, 
"as  they  join  wainscot."*  **Thou  saw'st  them 
married?"  asks  the  Host  in  Jonson's  play  of  the 
New  Inn.^  "  I  do  think  I  did,  and  heard  the  words, 
/  Philip,  take  thee  Lettice  .  .  .  and  heard  the  priest 
do  his  part."  "  Where  were  they  married  ?  "  **  In  the 
new  stable.  ..."  **Had  they  a  licence?"  **  Licence 
of  love,  I  saw  no  other." 

It  may  be  asked  why  marriages  were  not  always 
solemnised  in  church  after  banns  published  or  special 
licence  obtained.  "  Get  you  to  church,"  said  Jaques, 
*'and  have  a  good  priest  that  can  tell  you  what  mar- 
riage is."*  The  answer  is  that  it  was  difficult  to  get 
married,  especially  with  due  publication  of  banns, 
except  in  the  latter  half  of  the  year,  between  Trinity 
and  Advent.  The  ancient  prohibitions  had  been 
relaxed  by  the  Council  of  Trent;  but  the  decrees  of 
that  assembly  were  not  accepted  in  England.  In  our 
own  country  the  ancient  rules  prevailed.  The  banns 
could  not  be  published,   nor   marriages   solemnised, 

'  2  Henry  VI. ,  ii.  4,  30-3.  ^  As  You  Like  It^  iii.  3,  88. 

'  Act  v.,  scene  i.  ^  As  You  Likg  It^  u,s,^  86-7. 


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LAWFUL  TIMES   OF  MARRIAGE         33 

although  they  might  certainly  be  legally  contracted, 
during  any  of  the  periods  of  prohibition,  unless,  indeed, 
a  special  licence  were  obtained.  The  periods  extended 
from  Advent  to  the  Octave  of  the  Epiphany,  or  January 
the  13th,  exclusive;  from  Septuagesima  to  the  end  of 
Easter  Week ;  and  from  the  first  Rogation  Day,  three 
days  before  the  Feast  of  the  Ascension,  to  Trinity 
Sunday,  inclusive.  These  restrictions  are  described 
in  certain  old  Latin  verses,  which  are  thus  translated 
in  the  Termes  de  la  Ley: — 

**  Advent  all  marriage  forbids, 
Hilary's  feast  to  nuptials  tends, 
And  Septuagint  no  wedding  rids, 
Yet  Easter's  Octaves  that  amends. 
Rogation  hinders  hasty  loves, 
But  Trinity  that  let  removes.  "^ 

*'  It  is  also  certain,"  says  Burn,  ''that  a  distinction  of 
times  hath  been  observed  as  the  law  of  our  Reformed 
Church,  not  only  from  the  clause  in  several  licences 
which  we  may  observe  in  our  books,  Qtiocunque  anni 
tempore^  but  also  from  a  remarkable  dispute  which 
happened  in  Archbishop  Parker's  time  between  the 
Master  of  the  Faculties  and  the  Vicar^General,  whether 
the  first  only,  or  the  second  in  conjunction  with  him, 
had  a  right  to  grant  licences  on  that  particular  head. 
And  after  that,  in  Archbishop  Whitgift's  table  of  fees, 
there  is  first  a  fee  for  a  licence  to  solemnise  matrimony 
without  bannsy  and  afterwards  a  fee  for  a  licence  to 
solemnise  matrimony  in  the  time  of  prohibition  of  banns 
to  be  published."  Several  attempts  were  made  to 
remove  these  disabilities,  both  in  Parliament  and  in 
Convocation.  In  the  seventeenth  of  Elizabeth  a  Bill 
was  introduced  to  declare  marriages  after  banns  to  be 
lawful  at  all  times  of  the  year,  with  the  exception  of 
nine  days  specially  mentioned.     In  the  Convocation  of 


*  Les  Termes  de  la  Ley  (by  J.  Rastell),  1 641,  pp.  13,  14,  s,v.  Advent, 
D 


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34  SHAKESPEARE'S  EARLY   LIFE 

1575,  the  Queen  rejected  an  article  proposing  that 
marriages  might  be  solemnised  on  any  day  in  the 
year ;  ^^  but  these  distinctions,  being  invented  only  at 
first  as  a  fund  (among  many  others)  for  dispensation^, 
and  being  built  upon  no  rational  foundation,  nor  upon 
any  law  of  the  Church  of  England,  have  vanished  of 
themselves."^ 

These  dispensations  were  of  dififerent  kinds.  In 
some  cases  the  publication  of  banns  was  required  once 
and  no  more ;  in  others,  one  of  the  three  publications 
was  forborne;  and  there  were  faculties,  or  licences, 
''expressly  requiring  all  the  three  publications,  and 
dispensing  only  with  time  or  place."  Instances  of  all 
these  kinds,  we  are  told,  are  very  common  in  our 
ecclesiastical  records,  especially  before  the  Reformation. 

On  Thursday,  the  28th  of  November,  1582,  William 
Shakespeare  went  to  the  Bishop's  Registry  at  Wor- 
cester with  his  two  friends,  Fulk  Sandells  and  John 
Richardson,  the  two  farmers  from  Shottery,  and  ob- 
tained a  licence  to  be  married  to  Anne  Hathaway  with 
only  one  publication  of  banns.  Advent  Sunday  fell 
on  December  ist,  so  that  there  was  only  just  time 
to  get  the  banns  called  on  the  last  day  of  November — 
St.  Andrew's  Day.  Even  then,  however,  in  the  absence 
of  another  dispensation,  the  wedding  in  church  could 
-not  take  place  until  the  13th  of  January,  being  the 
Octave  of  the  Epiphany,  when  the  period  of  prohibi- 
tion came  to  an  end. 

There  has  been  some  discussion  of  an  entry  made  in 
the  book  on  the  preceding  day.  There  is  a  minute  as 
to  an  application  for  a  marriage  licence  ''for  William 
Shakespeare  and  Anne  Whately  of  Temple  Grafton  in 
the  County  of  Warwick."    The  licence  to  dispense  with 

^  Burn,  EccUsiasUcal  Law,  9th  ed.,  ii.  467-8.  The  words,  '*It  is 
also  certain  .  .  .  head/'  are  quoted  by  Burn  from  Gibson's  Codex ^  4^ 
The  prohibited  times  are  given  by  Lyndwood  (see  Gibson's  Codex,  u,s,, 
and  Ayliffe's  Parergon,  364). 


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HIS  MARRIAGE-LICENCE  35 

banns  was  given  in  favour  of  ''William  Shakespeare 
and  Anne  Hathaway  of  Stratford."  Temple  Grafton  is 
not  one  of  the  hamlets  of  Stratford.  There  is  a  curious 
coincidence  in  the  name  ;  but  we  cannot  attach  much 
importance  to  it  when  we  find  that  the  objects  of  the 
application  were  quite  different,  not  to  mention  the 
differences  in  the  surnames  and  residences  of  the  two 
intended  brides. 

Anne  Hathaway  was  not  present  when  the  application 
was  made.  This  involved  the  necessity  of  proof  that 
she  had  no  parents  living,  and  was  beyond  the  age  of 
wardship.  We  know  that  it  was  not  very  easy  to  prove 
her  age,  owing  to  the  neglect  in  keeping  a  parochial 
register ;  and  it  is  probable  that  there  were  no  certifi- 
cates produced  to  prove  that  her  parents  were  dead, 
especially  if  they  had  died  at  Weston,  in  another 
diocese.  Time,  however,  was  very  pressing,  and  an 
expedient  was  devised  to  meet  the  difficulty.  The  bond 
of  indemnity  was  drawn  in  a  somewhat  unusual  form — 
with  a  condition  that  Anne  Hathaway  should  not  be 
married  *'  without  the  consent  of  her  friends." 

It  was  necessary  under  the  circumstances  that  the 
intended  bridegroom  should  attend  the  office  in  person. 
On  being  presented  to  the  Ordinary,  a  lawyer  exercising 
the  Bishop's  jurisdiction  at  the  Registry,  he  had  to  state 
his  age  and  to  show,  as  a  minor,  that  he  was  furnished 
with  his  father's  consent.  One  of  the  two  friends 
would  doubtless  produce  a  letter  or  document  bearing 
John  Shakespeare's  signature  or  attested  mark.  Then 
William  Shakespeare  had  to  testify  on  oath  that  to  the 
best  of  his  knowledge  and  belief  there  was  no  impedi- 
ment by  way  of  precontract,  kindred,  or  alliance,  or 
by  reason  of  any  suit  in  the  Ecclesiastical  Court,  and, 
in  short,  that  he  knew  of  no  lawful  cause  why  the 
licence  should  not  be  given.  In  the  next  place  formal 
proof  had  to  be  offered  that  the  parties  were  "of  good 
estate  and  quality " ;  a  point  as  to  which  no  question 


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36  SHAKESPEARE'S  EARLY   LIFE 

was  likely  to  arise.  The  bonds-men  being  ready  to  give 
security  in  the  usual  way,  the  licence  was  accordingly 
granted,  permitting  the  parties  to  be  married  *'with 
once  asking  of  the  banns  of  matrimony  between  them," 
subject,  of  course,  to  the  ordinary  rules  as  to  marrying 
in  the  canonical  hours  and  in  the  church  or  chapel  of 
the  place  where  one  of  the  parties  was  in  residence. 
The  bond  was  executed  in  favour  of  Mr.  Richard  Cosin, 
a  lawyer  of  Worcester,  and  Mr.  Robert  Warmstry, 
notary,  and  principal  Registrar  for  the  diocese,  an 
office  which  was  long  hereditary  in  his  family.  The 
instrument  was  drawn  up  according  to  the  precise 
directions  provided  by  the  Canon  Law.  The  date  was 
the  28th  of  November,  in  the  twenty-fifth  year  of 
Elizabeth,  the  regnal  year  having  commenced  on  the 
17th  of  November,  1582.  Fulk  Sandells  and  John 
Richardson  bound  themselves  in  the  sum  of  £40^  the 
obligation  to  be  void  if  there  was  no  impediment  of 
the  kind  mentioned,  if  Anne  obtained  the  consent  of 
her  friends,  and  if  William  Shakespeare  duly  indemni- 
fied the  Lord  Bishop  of  Worcester,  John  Whitgift, 
**for  licensing  them  to  be  married  together  with  once 
asking  of  the  banns  of  matrimony  between  them." 

We  do  not  know  where  the  marriage  took  place.  If 
it  had  been  at  Stratford,  it  would  have  been  entered  in 
the  paper  book  then  used  as  a  register,  and  would  have 
been  copied  into  the  existing  parchment  book,  besides 
being  recorded  in  the  transcripts  from  time  to  time 
forwarded  to  Worcester.  As  Shakespeare's  place  of 
residence  is  not  mentioned  in  the  bond,  it  is  possible 
that  he  was  living  for  the  time  at  Weston,  or  some  other 
place  in  the  neighbourhood.  The  wedding  ceremony 
may  have  been  actually  performed  at  Weston  ;  but  there 
are  no  registers  of  that  parish  for  the  date  in  question, 
and  no  transcripts  for  the  same  period  have  as  yet  been 
discovered  at  Gloucester.  There  is  no  doubt,  however, 
that  the  ceremony  was  fully  performed  in  accordance 


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ANNE  SHAKESPEARE  37 

with  the  episcopal  authority.  Malone  had  an  idea  that 
Shakespeare  was  married  at  Billesley ;  but  this  seems 
to  be  a  mere  conjecture,  based  on  the  fact  that  Elizabeth, 
the  poet's  grandchild,  chose  Billesley  as  the  place  for 
her  second  marriage.  The  world  was  all  before  her ; 
and  yet  she  went  for  no  apparent  reason,  but  doubtless 
led  by  sentiment  or  affection,  to  the  obscure  little 
church.^  But  at  Billesley,  as  at  Weston,  the  early 
registers  are  lost;  and,  unless  transcripts  be  found,  any 
further  discussion  of  the  question  will  be  unprofitable. 

We  know  nothing  about  the  appearance  of  Anne 
Shakespeare,  though  it  might  be  possible  to  show  what 
she  was  not  like  by  comparing  various  passages  in  the 
plays  and  sonnets.  We  may  be  sure  that  she  was  not 
of  the  complexion  despised  in  poor  Phebe,  that  she  had 
not  those  "  inky  brows,"  that  *'  black  silk  hair,"  or  the 
"bugle  eyeballs"  of  Robin  Redbreast. 2  There  are, 
of  course,  many  passages  in  the  sonnets  which  would 
hardly  have  been  circulated  if  Anne  had  been  pale- 
lipped  and  of  a  dun  complexion,  and  with  "black 
wires  "  for  curls  on  her  head.*  Oldys  thought  that  he 
had  found  out  something  more  definite,  and  was  con- 
vinced that  Mrs.  Shakespeare  was  lovely,  cold,  and 
frail.  He  was  misled,  as  Malone  has  shown,  by  taking 
an  incomplete  view  of  the  ninety-third  sonnet,  as  if  it 
had  been  an  isolated  statement  and  not  part  of  an 
intricate  series  of  arguments.*  He  seems  also  to  have 
been  much  struck  with  the  poet's  quotation  from 
Edward  Ill.y  as  if  it  had  been  intended  as  an  imputa- 
tion against  Mrs.  Shakespeare's  character  : — 

"  For  sweetest  things  turn  sourest  by  their  deeds  ; 
Lilies  that  fester  smell  far  worse  than  weeds.  "* 

^  See  Malone,  op.  ciLy  ii.  117,  118.  Billesley  was  about  four  miles 
north-west  of  Stratford  on  the  Alcester  road. 

'  As  You  Like  It,  iii.  5,  46,  47.  '  Sonnet  cxxx.,  1.  4. 

*  "  So  shall  I  live,  supposing  thou  art  true, 

Like  a  deceived  husband." 

•  Sonnet  xciv.,  13-14.  Cf.  Edward  III,  (in  "Leopold  Shakespeare") 
"«  2,  455. 


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38  SHAKESPEARE'S  EARLY  LIFE 

In  the  next  sonnet,  however,  it  is  admitted  that  all  faults 
are  hidden  by  "beauty's  veil."^  The  comments  of 
Steevens  on  the  suggestion  afford  us  an  amusing 
specimen  of  his  style.  *  *  Whether  the  wife  of  our  author 
was  beautiful,  or  otherwise,  was  a  circumstance  beyond 
the  investigation  of  Oldys  .  .  .  yet  surely  it  was  natural 
to  impute  charms  to  one  who  could  engage  and  fix  the 
heart  of  a  young  man  of  such  uncommon  elegance  of 
fancy."2 

It  may  be  assumed  that  the  young  couple  lived  with 
Mr.  John  Shakespeare,  and  that  Anne  Shakespeare 
helped  in  the  housework,  while  her  husband  found 
something  to  do,  either  in  teaching  at  school  or  copy- 
ing papers  in  a  lawyer's  office. 


Ill 

In  or  about  1586,  Shakespeare  came  to  London  to 
seek  his  fortune,  and  it  was  not  long  before  he  was 
well  known  as  an  actor  and  playwright.  About  a 
century  afterwards,  someone  invented  the  story  of  his 
robbing  a  park.  Not  once,  but  several  times,  was  he 
guilty  of  this  **  extravagance,"  to  borrow  the  discreet 
phrase  of  Mr.  Nicholas  Rowe;^  "and  though  it  seemed 
at  first  to  be  a  blemish  upon  his  good  manners,  and  a 
misfortune  to  him,  yet  it  afterwards  happily  proved  the 
occasion  of  exercising  one  of  the  greatest  geniuses  that 
ever  was  known  in  dramatic  poetry."  The  park,  in 
process  of  time,  was  identified  with  Charlecote,  and 
the  owner  with  Sir  Thomas  Lucy.  Malone  showed, 
however,  by  reference  to  the  Records,  that  the  Lucys 
had  no  park  either  at  Charlecote  or  Fulbrooke.*    Part 

*  Sonnet  xcv.,  ii,  '*  Where  beauty's  veil  doth  cover  every  blot" 

*  Quoted  in  Malone,  op,  ciLj  xx.  J07,  note. 

*  Account  of  the  Life  of  Shakespeare^  1709. 

^  Malone,  op,  cit.,  ii.  145-9.  ^^^  ^^^  ^^^^  '^^  Halliwell-Phillipps,  u.s.f 
ii.  385- 


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.^ 


THE  DEEItiSlaCALmG  LEGEND 


39 


of  the  Fulbrooke  estate,  before  the  Hampton  woods 
were  inclosed,  had  been  a  park  till  the  reign  of  Philip 
and  Mary.  The  privileges  of  park  and  warren  had 
been  abolished  before  the  property  came  to  the  Lucy 
family,  but  the  name  of  Fulbrooke  Park  was  still  used 
as  a  title  of  courtesy.^  But  it  must  be  confessed  that 
taking  deer  from  any  inclosed  ground,  even  without 
any  riotous  conduct,  was  an  offence  within  the  Act  of 
Elizabeth. 

After  the  lapse  of  centuries,  the  offence,  if  it  hap- 
pened, may  fairly  be  condoned.  Many  people,  more- 
over, are  pleased  at  thinking  how  valiantly  the  keepers 
would  be  encountered  *'on  a  shiny  night."  But  the 
poaching  romance  seems  to  have  been  unknown  in 
i693>  when  Mr.  Dowdall  left  his  club  or  **knot  of 
friends"  at  Kineton,  and  stayed  at  Stratford  on  the 

^  The  estate  of  Fulbrooke  was  granted,  early  in  the  fifteenth  century, 
to  the  Regent  Duke  of  Bedford,  with  leave  to  impale  a  park ;  it  is  re- 
corded that  he  despoiled  a  nunnery,  and  pulled  down  a  church  and  a 
whole  village,  to  eifect  his  purpose.  After  his  death  it  was  granted  to 
John  Talbot,  Lord  Lisle  of  Kingston  Lisle.  From  him  it  passed  to  the 
great  Earl  of  Warwick ;  and  after  his  death  to  his  son-in-law,  the  Duke 
of  Clarence,  who  allowed  the  park  and  castle  to  fall  into  decay.  Ful- 
brooke came  into  the  possession  of  the  Lucy  family  for  a  few  years  in 
1510 ;  it  passed  to  John  Dudley,  Duke  of  Northumberland,  when  lord  of 
the  borough  of  Stratford ;  on  his  attainder,  it  was  bestowed  on  Sir 
Francis  Englefield,  who  was  convicted  of  treason  and  fled  to  Spain. 
The  tract  of  open  land,  the  park  being  dispaled  and  having  no  legal 
existence,  was  granted  to  Sir  Francb'  nephew,  who  sold  the  property 
in  1615  to  the  third  Sir  Thomas  Lucy.  "This  Sir  Thomas  renewed 
the  park,  and  by  the  addition  of  Hampton  Woods  thereto  enlarged 
it'*  (Dugdale,  Ani.  War,,  ed.  Thomas,  ii.  668-70).  Leland  (//jn., 
ed.  Heame,  iv.  51-2)  says,  "Here  (at  Barford  Bridge)  I  saw  half 
a  mile  lower  upon  Avon  on  the  right  Ripe  a  fair  park  called  Fulbroke, 
In  this  park  was  a  pretty  castle  made  of  stone  and  brick,  and,  as  one 
told  me,  a  Duke  of  Bereford  (Bedford)  lay  in  it.  .  .  .  This  castle  of 
Fulbroke  was  an  eyesore  to  the  Earls  that  lay  in  Warwick-Castle,  and 
was  cause  of  displeasure  between  each  lord.  Sir  William  Compton, 
Keeper  of  Fulbroke  Park  and  Castle,  seeing  it  go  to  ruin  helped  it  for- 
ward, taking  part  of  it  (as  some  say)  for  the  building  of  his  house  at 
Compton  (Wynyates),  by  Brailes  in  Warwickshire,  and  gave  or  per- 
mitted others  to  take  pieces  of  it  down."  Mr.  C.  H.  Bracebridge,  of 
Stratford,  published  an  account  of  the  park  in  1862. 


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40  SHAKESPEARE'S  EARLY   LIFE 

way  to  the  Warwick  Assizes.^  The  clerk,  or  old 
guide,  who  showed  young  Dowdall  round  the  monu- 
ments, had  clearly  never  heard  the  story,  and  did 
not  mention  buck  or  doe  in  his  little  biography: 
''This  Shakespear  was  formerly  in  this  towne 
bound  apprentice  to  a  butcher,  but  .  .  .  run  from 
his  master  to  London,  and  there  was  received  into 
the  Play-house  as  a  serviture,  and  by  this  meanes 
had  an  opportunity  to  be  what  he  afterwards  prov'd. 
He  was  the  best  of  his  family,  but  the  male  line  is 
extinguishd."  The  story  first  appeared  in  a  private 
memorandum  made  by  the  Rev.  Richard  Davies, 
Vicar  of  Sapperton,  in  Gloucestershire,  and  at  one 
time  Archdeacon  of  Lichfield.  He  was  the  friend  of 
a  well-known  antiquary,  the  Rev.  William  Fulman, 
who  bequeathed  all  his  MSS.  and  papers  to  him 
in  1688.  Mr.  Davies  died  in  1708,  and  left  them 
to  Corpus  Christi  College,  Oxford,  enriched  in  some 
cases  with  his  own  additions.  These  emendations  do 
not  add  much  credit  to  his  literary  character.  Mr. 
Fulman  had  written  a  few  words  of  a  note  on 
Shakespeare : — 

**  William  Shakespeare  was  born  at  Stratford-upon-Avon 
in  Warwickshire  about  1563-4.  From  an  actor  of  playes  he 
became  a  composer.  He  died  Apr.  23,  161 6,  aetat  53,  prob- 
ably at  Stratford,  for  there  he  is  buried,  and  hath  a  monu- 
ment, Dugd.,*p.  520." 

Mr.    Davies  filled  up  the  gaps  in  a  livelier  strain, 
adding,  between  the  first  and  second  sentences — 

''  Much  given  to  all  unluckinesse  in  stealing  venison  and 
rabbits,  particularly  from  Sr.  —  Lucy,  who  had  him  oft  whipt, 
and  sometimes  imprisoned,  and  at  last  made  him  fly  his 
native  country  to  his  great  advancement ;  but  his  reveng 
was  so  great  that  he  ts  his  Justice  Clodpate^  and  calls  him  a 
great  man.** 

We  omit  his  coarse  variation  of  the  quibble  on  the 

*    Vide  infra^  p.  327. 


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ALLEGED  BALLAD  ON  SIR  T.   LUCY    41 

Lucy  arms.  After  the  reference  to  Dugdale  and  the 
Stratford  monument,  he  added,  ''on  which  he  lays 
a  heavy  curse  upon  any  one  who  shal  remoove  his 
bones.     He  dyed  a  papist." 

Davies  made  no  reference  to  the  '*  bitter  ballad,"  of 
which  Rowe  had  heard  some  account  in  1709,  though 
it  was  supposed  to  be  lost;  nor  can  we  trace  much 
likeness  between  the  Archdeacon's  foolish  talk  and  the 
passages  between  FalstafF  and  Shallow.  Rowe  seems 
to  have  thought  that  Shakespeare  was  prosecuted  for  a 
libel.  In  the  young  man's  opinion,  we  are  told,  he 
was  somewhat  too  severely  treated  by  Sir  Thomas 
Lucy,  and  in  order  to  revenge  that  ill-usage  made  a 
ballad  upon  him;  **this,  probably  the  first  essay  of 
his  poetry  ...  is  said  to  have  been  so  very  bitter  that 
it  redoubled  the  prosecution  against  him  to  that  degree, 
that  he  was  obliged  to  leave  his  business  and  family  in 
Warwickshire  for  some  time,  and  shelter  himself  in 
London."^ 

The  first  stanza  of  the  libel  made  a  semi-public 
appearance  in  1753,  when  Oldys  was  a  prisoner  for 
debt  in  the  Fleet,  and  Capell  was  preparing  his  edition 
of  the  plays.  A  common  interest  led  to  friendly 
meetings  between  them ;  and  Capell  was  able  to 
introduce  the  antiquary  to  a  Mr.  Wilkes,  grandson  of 
Mr.  Thomas  Wilkes,  who  had  known  Mr.  Thomas 
Jones  of  Tarbick,2  a  village  about  eighteen  miles  from 
Stratford.  Mr.  Jones  had  died  in  1703,  aged  about 
ninety  years.  Their  visitor  told  Capell  and  Oldys  that 
Mr.  Jones  remembered  hearing  from  old  people  at 
Stratford  the  story  of  Shakespeare's  robbing  Sir 
Thomas  Lucy's  park,  and  that  the  ballad  was  stuck 
upon  the  park  gate,  *' which  exasperated  the  knight  to 
apply  to  a  lawyer  at  Warwick  to  proceed  against  him." 
''Mr.  Jones,"  says  Capell,  "had  put  down  in  writing 

^  Rowe,  op,  cit     See  Halliwell-Phillipps,  u.^.,  ii.  380-3. 
'  i,e,  Tardebig^e,  three  miles  from  Bromsgrove. 


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42  SHAKESPEARE'S  EARLY  LIFE 

the  first  stanza  of  this  ballad,  which  was  all  he  re- 
membered of  it " ;  he  seems  to  be  quoting  the  words 
of  the  visitor,  when  he  adds,  **Mr.  Thomas  Wilkes 
(my  grandfather)  transmitted  it  to  my  father  by  memory, 
who  also  took  it  down  in  writing."  Oldys  gave  a  less 
confused  account  of  the  matter,  in  a  note  first  published 
by  Steevens  in  1778.  He  said  that  old  Mr.  Jones 
could  remember  the  first  stanza,  **  which,  repeating  to 
one  of  his  acquaintance,  he  preserved  it  in  writing, 
and  here  it  is,  neither  better  nor  worse,  but  faithfully 
transcribed  from  the  copy,  which  his  relation  very 
courteously  communicated  to  me."^  Such  a  story  would 
naturally  grow,  as  soon  as  any  portion  of  it  was  pub- 
lished ;  and  we  accordingly  find  Mr.  A.  Chalmers,  in 
his  edition  of  the  plays,  in  181 1,  describing  the  poet  as 
*^SL  man  who  was  degrading  the  commonest  rank  of 
life,  and  had,  at  this  time,  bespoke  no  indulgence  by 
superior  talents."  The  ballad,  he  considered,  must 
have  made  some  noise  at  the  knight's  expense,  ''as 
the  author  took  care  it  should  be  afiixed  to  his  park- 
gates,  and  liberally  circulated  among  his  neighbours." 
Malone,  in  1790,  was  furnished  with  the  entire  song, 
found  in  a  chest  of  drawers  that  probably  belonged  to 
Mrs.  Dorothy  Tyler,  of  Shottery.  She  died  in  1778, 
aged  about  eighty  years,  in  a  house  formerly  belonging 
to  Mr.  Richard  Quiney.  Malone  printed  the  lampoon 
in  his  appendix,  ''being  fully  persuaded  that  one  part 
of  this  ballad  is  just  as  genuine  as  the  other ;  that  is, 
that  the  whole  is  a  forgery."  Most  people  will  now 
agree  with  his  opinion  that  the  song  was  made  up  from 
the  opening  scene  in  TTie  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor. 
He  went  so  far  as  to  see  an  allusion  to  Sir  Thomas 
himself,  and  not  merely  to  the  Lucy  coat-of-arms,  in 
Slender's  words:  "They  may  give  the  dozen  white 
luces  in  their  coat."'    A  line  in  the  forged  ballad  refers 

^  S«e  note  in  Malone,  Shakespeare^  u,s,^  ii.  140,  141. 
'  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor^  t.  i.  16,  17. 


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THE  LUCYS  IN  THE  PLAYS  43 

to  the  same  idea :  '^  Though  luces  a  dozen  he  paints  in 
his  coat."  This  might  have  been  written  by  a  comedian 
on  tour,  but  not  by  a  Stratford  man;  for  everyone 
there  knew  that  the  Lucy  coat  showed  *•  three  silver 
pikes  gasping,"  and  that  coat  is  displayed  on,  or 
might  be  seen  on,  Sir  Thomas  Lucy's  tomb.  He 
also  used  an  old  device  of  three  luces  intertwined  or 
fretted  in  a  triangle.  On  one  of  the  Lucy  tombs, 
it  is  said,  the  same  device  was  set  in  each  of  four 
corners ;  but  this,  of  course,  is  no  proof  that  there  were 
a  dozen  "  pikefishes  "  in  the  family  coat.^ 

Putting  aside  the  question  whether  Sir  Thomas  was 
caricatured  as  Shallow,  one  must  admit  that  Shake- 
speare showed  a  certain  respect  for  the  Lucys  and  such 
persons  bearing  their  names  as  he  met  with  in  the 
English  chronicles.  He  follows  Hall  and  Sir  Thomas 
More  in  the  matter  of  the  pretended  private  marriage 
between  Edward  IV.  and  Dame  Elizabeth  Lucy,  on 
which  Richard  III.  rested  his  title  for  a  time,  though 
the  story  was  afterwards  told  of  Lady  Elizabeth  Butler. 
Dr.  Robert  Shaw  was  ordered  to  preach  on  the  subject 
at  Paul's  Cross,  and  delivered  a  **  shameful  sermon  "  to 
prove  that  Edward  V.  and  his  brother  were  illegitimate 
by  reason  of  a  marriage  of  precontract  with  Elizabeth 
Lucy.  But  the  people,  we  are  told,  stood  as  if  they 
had  been  turned  into  stones.  And  ''the  preacher  gat 
him  home  and  never  after  durst  look  out  for  shame,  but 
kept  him  out  of  sight  as  an  owl."  And  when  he  was 
told  that  he  was  an  object  of  scorn,  ''it  so  strake  him 
to  the  heart  that  in  few  days  after  he  withered  away."* 
The  usurping  Gloucester  inquires  of  the  Duke  of 
Buckingham  if  he  had  spoken  at  the  Guildhall  about 
the  blot  on  his  nephew's  title.     "  I  did,"  is  the  reply, 

"  with  his  contract  with  Lady  Lucy, 
And  his  contract  by  deputy  in  France."  " 

^  The  "  dozen,"  however,  need  not  have  been  intended  literally. 
*  Hall's  Chfoniclet  ed.  1809,  p.  368.  •  Richard  III.  ^  iii.  7,  4. 


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44  SHAKESPEARE'S  EARLY  LIFE 

Once  more  Gloucester  comes  in  "between  two  bishops," 
and  Buckingham  repeats  the  story : — 

••  You  say  that  Edward  is  your  brother's  son  : 
So  say  we  too,  but  not  by  Edward's  wife  : 
For  first  he  was  contract  to  Lady  Lucy — 
Your  mother  lives  a  witness  to  that  vow."^ 

Sir  William  Lucy,  who  takes  a  prominent  part  in 
the  first  part  of  Henry  F/,,*  is  only  once  mentioned  in 
Hall's  Chronicle.  In  describing  the  Battle  of  North- 
ampton, fought  upon  the  9th  July,  1460,  in  which  the 
Yorkists  were  victorious,  the  historian  says  that  Sir 
William  ''  made  great  haste  to  come  to  part  of  the 
fight,  and  at  his  first  approach  was  stricken  in  the  head 
with  an  axe."*  He  is  represented  in  the  play  as  taking 
a  leading  part  in  the  French  war.  We  find  him  first 
coming  to  the  Duke  of  York  from  the  camp  before 
Bordeaux,  where  old  Talbot  is  beleaguered.  The 
English  are  "  park'd  and  bounded  in  a  pale,"  like  a 
herd  of  deer.     '*  If  we  be  English  deer,'*  says  Talbot, 

"be  then  in  blood  ; 
Not  rascal-like,  to  fall  down  with  a  pinch.  "^ 

Lucy  is  sent  to  get  assistance  from  Richard  of  York, 
and  pleads  for  the  rescue  of  the  brave  general  and 
valiant  John : 

**  his  son  young  John,  who  two  hours  since 
I  met  in  travel  toward  his  warlike  father."  ^ 

*'  Thou  princely  leader  of  our  English  strength, 
Never  so  needful  on  the  earth  of  France, 
Spur  to  the  rescue  of  the  noble  Talbot, 
Who  now  is  girdled  with  a  waist  of  iron 
And  hemmed  about  with  grim  destruction."* 

1  Ihid,,  177-80. 

^  The  part  which  Shakespeare  took  in  this  play  is,  of  course,  one  of 
the  moot  points  of  Shakespearean  criticism.  Beside  the  importance 
given  to  Sir  William  Lucy,  there  are,  however,  one  or  two  possible 
references  to  Stratford-on-Avon.  The  lines  in  the  first  act  (i,  154)  about 
"keeping  our  great  Saint  George's  feast,"  and  the  comparison  (i.  2,  142) 
of  Joan  of  Arc  to  "  Helen,  mother  of  great  Constantine,"  may  be  reminis- 
cences of  the  paintings  in  the  Guild  Chapel. 

'  Hall,  w,5.,  p.  244.  *  I  Henry  VI.  iv.  2,  45-9. 

*  Id,,  3,  35-6.  «  Ibid,,  17-21. 


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SIR  WILLIAM   LUCY  45 

In  the  next  scene  he  is  introduced  to  Somerset  by  one 
of  Talbot's  captains — 

"  How  now,  Sir  William,  whither  were  you  sent?  " 

Both  the  question  and  the  answer,  we  may  observe, 
are  in  false  English. 

**  Whither,  my  Lord?  from  bought  and  sold  Lord  Talbot ; 
Who,  ring'd  about  with  bold  adversity, 
Cries  out  for  noble  York  and  Somerset."^ 

**If  he  be  dead,"  says  the  general,  **  brave  Talbot, 
then  adieu."  ^'His  fame  lives  in  the  world,"  retorts 
Lucy,  *'his  shame  in  you."*  The  bold  knight  is  very 
formal  in  speech ;  his  comparison  of  the  generals  to 
Prometheus,  with  the  **  vulture  of  sedition"  feeding  in 
the  bosom,  is  pedantic ;'  and  Joan  of  Arc  is  forced  to 
laugh  at  his  ** silly  stately  style"  when  he  enumerates 
his  commander's  titles.* 

*'  I  think  this  upstart  is  old  Talbot's  ghost. 
He  speaks  with  such  a  proud  commanding  spirit," 

and  the  Englishman,  pragmatical  to  the  last,  warns 
the  Dauphin  that  from  their  ashes  shall  be  reared  ''a 
phoenix  that  shall  make  all  France  afeared."^ 


IV 

Almost  all  the  personal  anecdotes  about  Shake- 
speare have  come  down  to  us  from  Sir  William 
Davenant,  the  author  of  Gondibert.  He  was  proud  of 
having  seen  Shakespeare  on  his  occasional  visits  to 
Oxford,  and  he  admired,  above  everything  known  in  the 
past,  the  English  drama,  whose  traditions  he  hoped  to 
perpetuate.  In  Dryden's  preface  to  the  altered  Tempesty 
he  tells  us  that  Sir  William  first  taught  him  to  admire 

»  Id,,  iv.  4,  12-15.  '  ^*^'y  45-6-  '  ^^y  >v-  3.  47-8. 

*  Id.,  7,  72.  The  "silly  stately  style"  is  characteristic,  however,  of 
the  whole  play,  and  not  merely  of  Lucy's  speeches. 

*  Ibid.y  87-93. 


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46  SHAKESPEARE'S  EARLY  LIFE 

Shakespearci  ^'a  poet  for  whom  he  had  particularly 
high  veneration."^  If  we  could  evoke  some  shadow 
of  the  living  Shakespeare,  it  could  only  be  with  the 
help  of  Davenant's  recollections.  We  shall  find  little 
help  from  painting  or  sculpture ;  but  we  can  compare 
what  was  said  by  those  who  knew  the  poet,  or  had 
talked  with  his  friends;  seeking,  in  his  own  phrase, 
the  image  'Mn  some  antique  book,  since  mind  at  first 
in  character  was  done." 

Sir  William  was  the  son  of  Mr.  John  Davenant,  an 
Oxford  vintner,  who  kept  a  tavern  afterwards  known 
as  the  **  Crown."  Mr.  Davenant  was  a  grave  and 
discreet  man,  '^  yet  an  admirer  and  lover  of  plays  and 
play-makers,  especially  Shakespeare,  who  frequented 
his  house  in  his  journeys  between  Warwickshire  and 
London."  His  wife  was  good-looking  and  clever,  and 
apparently  of  unblemished  reputation  to  the  end  of  her 
days.  The  eldest  boy,  Robert,  took  after  his  father, 
**  who  was  seldom  or  never  seen  to  laugh."  The  next 
brother,  William,  was  full  of  high  spirits ;  his  genius 
led  him  'Mn  the  pleasant  paths  of  poetry,"  though  he 
picked  up  some  smattering  of  logic  at  Lincoln  College.* 
**  Parson  Robert"  used  to  meet  Aubrey  at  St.  John's, 
and  told  him  how  kind  Shakespeare  had  been.'  Aubrey 
saw  his  way  to  a  scandal  at  Mrs.  Davenant's  expense. 
**Now  Sir  William  would  sometimes,  when  he  was 
pleasant  over  a  glass  of  wine  with  his  most  intimate 
friends,  e.g.  Sam  Butler  (author  of  Hudibras),  &c., 
say  that  it  seemed  to  him  that  he  writt  with  the  very 
spirit  that  Shakespeare,  and  seemed  contented  enough 
to  be  thought  his  son."*     There  was  an  old  story  told 

^  Works  of  Dryden,  ed.  Scott  and  Saintsbury,  iii.  io6. 

*  Anthony  k  Wood,  Ath,  Oxon,  (1692),  ii.  292.  This,  with  other 
pertinent  extracts,  was  printed  by  Halliwell-Phillipps,  «.«.,  il  49. 

*  See  Aubrey,  Brie/  Lives^  ed,  Andrew  Clark,  1898,  i.  204.  "  I  have 
heard  Parson  Robert  say  that  Mr.  W.  Shakespeare  has  given  him  a 
hundred  kisses."    These  words  were  crossed  out  in  Aubrey's  MS. 

*  Ilfid.    Aubrey  omitted  a  verb  after  **  Shakespeare." 


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THE  DAVENANT  STORY  47 

by  Taylor  the  water-poet  in  1629,^  which  in  process 
of  time  was  applied  to  Davenant.  ^'A  boy,  whose 
mother  was  noted  to  be  one  not  overloden  with  honesty, 
went  to  seeke  his  godfather,  and  enquiring  for  him, 
quoth  one  to  him,  Who  is  thy  godfather?  The  boy 
reply'd,  his  name  is  goodman  Digland  the  gardiner. 
Oh,  said  the  man,  if  he  be  thy  godfather,  he  is  at 
the  next  alehouse,  but  I  feare  thou  takest  God's  name 
in  vain."  The  quip  vras  ascribed  to  a  townsman. 
When  applied  to  Davenant,  it  was  transferred  to  a 
doctor  of  divinity,^  and  at  last  to  one  of  the  heads  of 
houses.*  Betterton  passed  it  on  to  Pope,  who  be- 
stowed it  upon  Oldys  at  the  Earl  of  Oxford's  table, 
about  1740-1  ;^  but  the  antiquary  records  in  his  ^^second 
annotated  Langbaine"  that  he  had  found  the  story 
in  its  original  form  among  Taylor's  collections  from 
the  taverns. 

The  relationship  at  which  Aubrey  sneered  was  son- 
ship  of  a  literary  kind.  Those  who  shared  in  the  help 
of  the  same  Genius  were  regarded  as  fathers  and  sons, 
or  as  brothers,  according  to  their  dignity.  Chapman, 
for  instance,  wrote  to  Nathaniel  Field  as  his  'Moved 
son,"^  and  some  of  Howell's  letters  were  addressed  to 
"my  father,  Mr.  Ben  Jonson."  Sergeant  Hoskyns, 
said  Aubrey,  was  Jonson's  '^ father" ;  and  his  son,  Sir 
Bennet  Hoskyns,  asked  Jonson  to  adopt  him.  ^^No,"  < 
said  Ben,  "I  dare  not;  'tis  honour  enough  for  me  to 
be  your  brother :  I  was  your  father's  son,  and  'twas  he 
that  polished  me."^ 

^  Extract  in  Halliwell-Phillipps,  «.£.,  ii.  43,  from  Taylor's  pamphlet. 
Wit  and  Mirth  chargeably  collected  out  of  Tavemes,  etc.,  1629  (in  fol. 
1630); 

'  Heame's  MS.  pocket-book  for  1709,  in  Bodleian;  extract  printed 
u,s,,  ii.  44.  '  Spence*s  Anecdotes,  extract  printed  u.s, 

•  Oldys'  MS,  Coliections,  printed  by  Stcevens,  1778.  The  story  here 
assumes  the  '*old  townsman"  version.    Extract  printed  u,s.,  ii.  45. 

•  Commendatory  verses  prefixed  to  A  Woman  is  a  Weathercock, 
(published  1612),  in  Mermaid  ed.,  p.  339. 

•  Aubrey,  u.s,,  i.  417-8' 


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48  SHAKESPEARE'S   EARLY   LIFE 

Something  of  Shakespeare's  life  came  through 
Davenant  to  William  Beeston,  an  actor  at  Drury 
Lane.  His  mother,  Elizabeth  Beeston,  was  the  widow 
of  Christopher  Beeston,  apprentice  to  Augustine 
Phillips,  of  the  King's  Company.  When  Phillips  died 
in  1605,  he  left  bequests  in  these  words:  "To  my 
fellow,  William  Shakespeare,  a  thirty  shillings  piece 
in  gold ;  to  my  servant  Christopher  Beeston  thirty 
shillings  in  gold,"  We  may  attribute  to  this  Christo- 
pher the  best  of  all  the  word-portraits,  or  pictures  **in 
character,"  as  the  poet  expressed  it :  "  He  was  a  hand- 
some, well-shaped  man,  very  good  company,  and  of  a 
very  ready  smooth  wit"  On  Christopher  Beeston's 
death,  his  widow  and  her  son  William  were  employed 
in  the  management  of  "The  King's  and  Queen's 
Young  Company  "  at  the  Phoenix  ;  and  when  the  post 
was  given  to  Davenant,  in  June,  1640,  he  accepted  the 
young  man  as  his  deputy.  1  We  know  from  Aubrey 
that  William  Beeston  was  his  informant  about  Shake- 
speare teaching  Latin  grammar.  Shakespeare  "under- 
stood Latin  pretty  well,  for  he  had  been  in  his  younger 
years  a  schoolmaster  in  the  country — from  Mr.  .  .  • 
Beeston."  2 

^  The  story  of  Shakespeare's  organising  the  horse- 
boys' brigade  came  down  from  Davenant  to  Dr. 
Johnson,  who  had  it  first  from  Bishop  Newton,  the 
editor  of  Milton.  Pope  got  it  from  Rowe,  who  quite 
refused  to  believe  it;  but  his  friend  Betterton  had 
received  the  details  from   Sir  William  direct.      Dr. 

^  The  particulars  are  recorded  in  Collier's  Annals,  ii.  99-102.  See 
also  td,,  78,  83,  91.  The  company  seems  to  have  borne  familiarly  the 
name  of  "  Beeston's  Boys,"  and  was  established  about  1636.  Collier, 
u/.,  p.  91,  makes  no  mention  of  Christopher  Beeston's  widow,  and  says 
that  William  Beeston  was  probably  his  brother. 

*  Aubrey,  u.s,,  ii.  227.  See  also  i.  97,  stib  William  Beeston,  **  W, 
Shakespeart — quaere  Mr.  Beeston,  who  knows  most  of  him  from  Mr. 
Lacy.  .  .  .  Quaere  etiam  for  Ben  Jonson,  Old  Mr.  Beeston,  whom 
Mr.  (John)  Dryden  calls  *the  chronicle  of  the  stage,'  died  at  his  house 
in  Bishopsgate  Street  without,  about  Bartholomew-tide,  1682." 


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THE   HORSE-BOYS*  BRIGADE  49 

Johnson  gave  it  to  Robert  Shiels,  then  helping  as  a 
copyist  at  the  Dictionary ;  and  Shiels  printed  it  in 
the  Lives  of  the  Poets ^  which  Theophilus  Gibber 
was  trying  to  pass  oflF  as  his  father's  work,  in  1753. 
When  Shakespeare  came  first  to  London,  it  was  the 
custom  to  go  to  the  play  on  horseback.  Shakespeare's 
expedient  to  get  a  living  was  to  hold  the  horses  of 
those  that  rode  to  the  playhouse ;  and  he  was  so 
careful  that  everyone  called  for  Will  Shakespeare  1 
This  was  the  dawn  of  better  fortune.  Finding  more 
horses  put  into  his  hand  than  he  could  hold,  he 
hired  boys  to  wait  under  his  inspection,  who,  when 
Will  Shakespeare  was  summoned,  were  immediately 
to  present  themselves  with  the  formula,  **  I  am  Shake- 
speare's boy,  Sir  I "  As  long  as  the  practice  of  riding 
to  the  playhouse  continued,  the  waiters  that  held  the 
horses  continued  to  be  known  as  ** Shakespeare's  Boys." 

Such  a  story  would  naturally  give  o£Fence  to  the 
more  elegant  biographers.  Mr.  Rowe  would  not  soil 
his  biography  with  anything  so  menial.  To  Malone, 
the  idea  of  a  gentleman  '^ holding  horses"  was  offen- 
sive in  the  highest  degree.  Surely,  it  is  urged,  Mr. 
John  Shakespeare  would  have  helped  his  prodigal  son, 
or  Mrs.  Anne,  poor  young  creature,  would  have  raised 
money  from  her  farming  friends.  **We  have  no 
reason  to  suppose  that  he  had  forfeited  the  protection  of 
his  father  who  was  engaged  in  a  lucrative  business,  or 
the  love  of  his  wife  who  had  already  brought  him  tvyo 
children,  and  was  herself  the  daughter  of  a  substantial 
yeoman."  Were  not,  it  was  suggested,  all  the  popular 
theatres  on  Bank-side  approached  by  water,  with 
sculls,  or  a  smart  pair  of  oars,  and  not  a-horseback  or 
"  a-footback  "  ?  1 

Malone  seems  to  have  forgotten  that  the  only  regular 
playhouses,  when  Shakespeare  first  came  to  town, 
were  in  a  comfortable  corner,  half  a  mile  from  the  city 

^  See  Malone»  Shakespeare^  u,s,,  i.  462,  note. 
E 


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50  SHAKESPEARE'S  EARLY  LIFE 

wall,  and  outside  the  Lord  Mayor's  jurisdiction.  The 
**  Theatre,"  so  called  par  excellence^  was  an  open-air 
amphitheatre,  built  by  James  Burbage  on  a  site  be- 
longing to  the  Nunnery  of  Holywell.  It  had  an 
opening  into  Finsbury  Fields,  across  which  a  path  led 
to  the  postern  at  Moorgate ;  or  one  could  ride  to  it 
from  High  Street,  Shoreditch,  down  Holywell  Lane. 
The  ''Curtain"  was  a  building  on  the  other  side  of 
the  lane,  near  the  great  sewer  called  Moor-ditch.  Its 
site  is  approximately  shown  by  the  line  of  Curtain 
Road.  The  playgoers  might  put  their  horses  up  at 
the  ''  Lion,"  in  Shoreditch,  or  go  down  past  the  orchard 
towards  the  playhouses.^  Sir  John  Davies  wrote 
before  1599  an  ''epigram  to  Faustus,"*  which  shows 
that  the  playhouses  adjoined  Finsbury  Fields;  but 
the  riding  to  them  across  the  grass,  or  over  the 
citizen's  footpaths,  was  meant  only  as  a  point  in  the 
satire : — 

'*  Faustus,  nor  lord,  nor  knight,  nor  wise,  nor  old, 
To  every  place  about  the  town  doth  ride ; 
He  rides  into  the  fields,  plays  to  behold ; 
He  rides,  to  take  boat  at  the  water-side." 

Hired  coaches  were  rare  in  Elizabeth's  reign,  though 
not  unknown.  Mr.  G.  Chalmers  cited  the  Lords' 
Journals  for  1601  as  to  a  bill  restraining  "the  excessive 
and  superfluous  use  of  coaches,"  and  a  line  about  "  a 
badged  coach"  from  Marston's  Cynic  Satire^  iS99* 
Aubrey  heard  that  in  Sir  Philip  Sidney's  time  it  was 
as  disgraceful  for  a  young  gentleman  to  be  seen  in 
a  coach  as  if  he  were  found  walking  "in  a  petticoat 
and  waistcoat."^  Hired  coaches  became  common  about 
1605.     In  Dekker  and  Webster's  Westmard^Ho^  one 

^  There  is  a  sketch  of  the  ride  from  Bishopsgate  in  Northward^HOf 
by  Dekker  and  Webster,  acted  in  1607  by  the  children  of  St.  Paul's. 

^  Reprinted  in  Malone,  Shakespeare,  u,s,t  iii.  152,  note. 

'  Aubrey,  u,s.,  iL  249. 

*  Act  ii.  sc.  3.  Dr.  A.  W.  Ward,  Eng;  Dram,  Lt/.f  ii.  469,  says  that 
Westward-Ho  was  certainly  written  by  1605. 


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ON  THE  STAGE  51 

of  the  citizens  says,  **  We'll  take  a  coach  and  ride  to 
Ham  or  so."  **  O,  fie  upon't,  a  coach  I  I  cannot  abide 
to  be  jolted."  In  Middleton  and  Dekker's  Roaring 
Girl  (161 1 X  a  hack-driver  appeared  on  the  stage,  with 
cape  and  whip,  ready  to  take  his  fare  from  Gray's  Inn 
JFields  to  the  other  end  of  Marylebone  Park.* 


Mr.  Jones,  of  **Tarbick,"  who  has  been  mentioned 
in  connection  with  the  Lucy  legend,  took  part  in 
handing  down  another  story  told  to  him  by  one 
of  Shakespeare's  relations  at  Stratford.  This,  at  least, 
is  the  account  received  by  Capell  from  Mr.  Wilkes. 
**  My  grandfather  heard  it  from  Mr.  Jones,"  was  his 
formula ;  but  he  also  relied  on  the  witness  of  his  friend, 
Mr.  Oldys,  **a  late  stage-antiquarian."  The  story 
was  to  the  effect  that  Shakespeare  played  Adam  in 
AsYauLikelty  when  his  relative  went  to  see  him  at  the 
Globe. 

Oldys,  in  his  own  person,  told  quite  a  different  story. 
For  some  unknown  reason  he  fathered  it  on  Gilbert 
Shakespeare,  the  poet's  youngest  brother.*  The  date 
of  Gilbert's  baptism  was  the  13th  of  October,  1566. 
The  time  of  his  death  is  unknown ;  but  if  Oldys 
were  correct  in  his  guess,  he  would  have  been  about 
a  century  old  before  he  gave  up  his  visits  to  the  theatre. 
**  One  of  Shakespeare's  younger  brothers,  who  lived  to 
a  good  old  age,  even  some  years,  as  I  compute,  after  the 
restoration  of  King  Charles  the  Second,  would  in  his 
younger  diiys  come  to  London  to  visit  his  brother  Will, 
as  he  called  him,  and  be  a  spectator  of  him  as  an  actor 
in  some  of  his  own  plays."  As  Shakespeare's  fame 
increased,  Oldys  seems  to  have  believed  wrongly  that 

^  Roaring  Girl,  iii.  i. 

^  Richard  and  Edmund,  the  intermediate  brothers,  both  died  in 
Shakespeare's   ifetime. 


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52  SHAKESPEARE'S   EARLY  LIFE 

**his  dramatick  entertainments  grew  the  greatest  sup- 
port of  our  principal,  if  not  of  all  our  theatres."  When 
the  stage  revived  after  the  Civil  War,  old  Gilbert 
began  to  attend  the  plays  at  Drury  Lane.  Among  the 
actors  there  he  might  have  met  his  own  great-nephew  ; 
for  Charles  Hartflhe  great  tragedian,  was  the  grandson 
of  Shakespeare's  sister  Joan.  According  to  our  anti- 
quary, this  rendered  the  most  noted  actors  greedy  for 
some  personal  anecdotes  at  first  hand  ;  but  the  strange 
visitor  seemed  to  be  **a  man  of  weak  intellects,"  or 
at  any  rate  so  infirm  that  he  could  tell  them  very 
little.  **A11  that  could  be  recollected  from  him  of  his 
brother  Will  in  that  station  was  the  faint,  general,  and 
almost  lost  ideas  he  had  of  having  once  seen  him  act  a 
part  in  one  of  his  own  comedies,  wherein,  being  to 
personate  a  decrepit  old  man,  he  wore  a  long  beard, 
and  appeared  so  weak  and  drooping  and  unable  to 
walk,  that  he  was  forced  to  be  supported  and  carried  by 
another  person  to  a  table,  at  which  he  was  seated 
among  some  company  who  were  eating,  and  one  of 
them  sang  a  song."  It  seems  that  neither  Davenant 
nor  Betterton  knew  of  this  tradition,  or  of  the  more, 
trustworthy  anecdote  from  Stratford ;  for  Betterton 
expressly  said  he  could  never  meet  with  any  public 
account  of  Shakespeare's  acting,  except  that  **the 
top  of  his  performance  was  the  Ghost  in  his  own 
Hamlet.^^  He  knew  that  his  acting  was  praised  in  the 
preface  to  Chettle's  Kind-hartes  Dreamer  in  1592-3. 
Greene  had  attacked  Shakespeare,  not  for  his  acting, 
but  for  being  a  factotum,  stealing  the  trade  from  the 
university  play-writers,  and  fancying  himself  at  the 
same  time  to  be  the  best  actor,  **the  only  Shake- 
scene."  A  comedian  writing  plays  seemed  shocking 
to  this  poor  Ragged  Robin:  **  Here  is  a  peasant,  or 
rude  groom,  turned  ape  or  painted  monster."  Chettle 
apologised  for  the  abuse  which  he  had  ventured  to 
publish :    ''I  am  as  sory  as  if  the  originall  fault  had 


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HIS  PARTS  ON  THE  STAGE  53 

beene  my  fault,  because  my  selfe  have  seen  his  de- 
meanor no  lesse  civill,  than  he  exelent  in  the  qualitie  he 
professes."^ 

In  1598,  Shakespeare  acted  in  Jonson's  Every  Man 
in  his  Humour;  and,  as  he  was  the  chief  comedian, 
we  may  fairly  suppose  that  he  took  the  leading  part. 
The  name  of  **Mr.  Knowell"  heads  the  dramatis 
personce;  and  that  trivial  circumstance  led  to  the  story 
that  Shakespeare  selected  the  part  of  the  nervous  old 
citizen.  It  is  far  more  probable  that  he  acted  the 
part  in  which  Garrick  attained  a  success.  "Kitely," 
says  Thomas  Da  vies,  **  though  not  equal  to  Ford  in 
The  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor^  who  can  plead  a 
more  justifiable  cause  of  jealousy,  is  yet  well  con- 
ceived, and  is  placed  so  artfully  in  situation,  as  to 
draw  forth  a  considerable  share  of  comic  distress." 
Burbage,  in  this  case,  was  clearly  marked  down  for 
Captain  Bobadill ;  and  Cob,  the  merry  water-carrier, 
belonged  to  Will  Kemp,  in  preference  to  Phillips  and 
Pope,  whose  clowning  was  a  little  worn-out.  In  1603, 
Shakespeare  acted  in  Sejanus,  under  Burbage  as  the 
principal  tragedian  ;  but  the  play  died  in  its  birth,  and 
we  know  nothing  about  the  cast  of  the  characters.^  It 
seems  probable  that  Shakespeare  acted  the  part  of 
William  Rufus  in  Dekker's  Satiro-mastix,  In  1601,  Ben 
Jonson  had  given  great  oflFence  to  the  minor  poets  in  his 
Poetasterj^  produced  by  the  children  of  the  Chapel 
Royal:  **Thou  hast  arraigned  two  poets  against  all 

^  See  reprints  of  Greene's  and  Chettle's  pamphlets  in  Skakspeare 
AUtision-BookSy  ed.  C.  M.  Ingleby,  pt.  i,  1874. 

'*  Shakespeare's  part  may  have  been  that  of  Tiberius :  the  title-r^/tf 
would  naturally  fall  to  Burbage. 

'  The  original  offence,  as  is  well  known,  came  from  CynthicCs  Revels 
(1600).  Marston  and  Dekker  recognised  themselves  in  the  Hedon  and 
Anaides  of  the  play.  Jonson  forestalled  any  really  effective  reply  by 
writing  The  Poetaster— 9l  task  which,  be  says  in  his  prologue,  occupied 
him  fifteen  weeks.  The  Demetrius  of  this  satiric  play  was  Dekker; 
Crispinus  is  usually  supposed  to  be  Marston.  The  actual  cause  of  the 
quarrel  is  unknown. 


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54  SHAKESPEARE'S  EARLY  LIFE 

law  and  conscience,  and  not  content  with  that,  hast 
turned  them  amongst  a  company  of  horrible  Black- 
Friars."  Dekker  seems  to  have  been  chosen  as  the 
champion  against  the  common  foe;  and  in  1602  his 
Satirchmastixy  or  the  Untrussing  of  the  Humorous  Poet 
was  acted  by  the  children  of  Paul's,  and  afterwards  by 
the  Lord  Chamberlain's  company  at  the  Globe.^  In  a 
farce  called  The  Return  from  Parnassus,  written  at 
Cambridge  about  that  time,  we  are  shown  Burbage  and 
Kempe  instructing  the  students  :  *  **  Few  of  the  Univer- 
sity pen  plays  well ;  they  smell  too  much  of  that  writer 
Ovid,  and  that  writer  Metamorphosis,  and  talk  too  much 
of  Proserpina  and  Jupiter.  Why,  here's  our  fellow 
Shakespeare  puts  them  all  down,  ay,  and  Ben  Jonson 
too.  O  that  Ben  Jonson  is  a  pestilent  fellow  I  He 
brought  up  Horace  giving  the  poets  a  pill :  but  our 
fellow  Shakespeare  had  given  him  a  purge  ! "  Jonson 
referred  to  '^the  players"  in  the  dialogue  appended  to 
The  Poetaster  J  as  it  appeared  in  the  folio  of  161 6 ;  in  his 
opinion,  he  had  touched  them  very  lightly,  and  they 
ought  not  to  have  taken  offence : — 

**  What  they  have  done  'gainst  me, 
I  am  not  moved  with  :  if  it  gave  them  meat, 
Or  got  them  clothes,  'tis  well ;  that  was  their  end. 
Only  amongst  them,  I  am  sorry  for 
Some  better  natures,  by  the  rest  so  drawn. 
To  run  in  that  vile  line."  ' 

The  plot  of  Satiro '  mxistix  lies  in  the  marriage  of 
Walter  Tyrrel  and  the  love  of  King  William  for  the 
bride.     It  is  just  possible  that  **  Rufus  "  was  introduced 

^  Marston  seems  previously  to  have  attempted  a  reply  to  Cynikids 
Revels  in  hisyori  Drum's  Entertainment 

•  Return  from  Parnassus^  iv.  5,  14-20  (ed,  Arber).  The  farce  was 
acted  in  January,  x6o2,  at  St.  John's  College,  Cambridge.  It  was 
printed  1606b 

'  Poetaster,  "Apologetical  Dialog-ue,"  IL  134-9.  This  dialogue  was 
written  in  i6ox,  but  was  not  allowed  to  be  printed  (Ward,  op,  cit,  iL  360). 


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HIS  PART  IN  SATIRO-MASTIX  55 

by  way  of  reference  to  the  pocfs  auburn  hair.  The 
picture  of  Rufus  is  given  thus : — 

''  Suppose  who  enters  now, 
A  King,  whose  eyes  are  set  in  silver,  one 
That  blusheth  gold,  speaks  music,  dancing  walks, 
Now  gathers  nearer,  takes  thee  by  the  hand, 
When  straight  thou  think'st,  the  very  Orb  of  Heaven 
Moves  round  about  thy  fingers,  then  he  speaks, 
Thus — thus — I  know  not  how."^ 

If  this  were  Shakespeare's  own  part,  as  seems  likely, 
it  would  be  a  good  field  for  displaying  his  ^'  brave 
notions"  and  ''excellent  phantasy."  His  genius,  in- 
deedy  as  Fuller  had  heard,  was  ''jocular  and  inclined 
to  festivity."  There  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  he 
always  played  the  "  heavy  father,"  as  Old  Knowell,  or 
Duncan,  or  Henry  IV.,  as  many  have  supposed. 
Rufus  was  a  part  just  suited  to  his  nimble  discourse. 
We  all  remember  Fuller's  fancy  of  what  the  fights 
at  the  "Mermaid"  were  like.  Drake's  frigate  could  run 
round  La  Santissima  Trinidady  as  Shakespeare  could 
tack  about  and  outsail  Father  Ben,  "and  take  advan- 
tage of  all  winds  by  the  quickness  of  his  wit  and  inven- 
tion." A  poor  epigram  "to  our  English  Terence'* 
was  printed  by  Malone,  from  The  Scourge  of  Folly,  by 
John  Davies ;  where  the  Hereford  schoolmaster  warned 
"good  Will"  that  he  might  have  been  a  courtier  or 
"companion  for  a  king,"  if  he  had  not  played  " some 
kingly  parts  in  sport"  The  lines,  at  any  rate,  refer  to 
characters  played  by  Shakespeare  before  the  accession 
of  King  James. 

Mr.  John  Downes,  the  prompter,  preserved  one  or  two 
stage  traditions  about  Shakespeare.  He  was  for  many 
years  bookkeeper  to  the  Duke's  company,  first  under 
Davenant  in  the  old  house,  and  afterwards  at  Salisbury 
Court,  in  Whitefriars.  In  Roscius  Anglicanus^  a 
historical  review  of  the  stage,  he  received  assistance 

*  Dekktf^s  Dramatic  Works^  ed.  Pearson,  1873,  i.  249. 


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56  SHAKESPEARE'S   EARLY   LIFE 

from  Charles  Booth,  prompter  to  the  company  under 
Killigrew's  patent  at  Drury  Lane.  But  most  of  the 
work  was  compiled  from  his  own  journals ;  for  he  was 
familiar  with  every  play  in  the  stock,  had  written  out 
the  parts,  attended  all  the  rehearsals,  and  prompted 
out  of  his  own  book  in  the  afternoons. 

On  May  28th,  1663,  Davenant  produced  Hamlet^ 
with  Betterton  as  the  Prince.  We  must  remember 
that  the  play  was  very  much  cut  down,  the  main  plot 
retained,  and  most  of  the  digressions  and  **  side- 
shows "  left  out.  Mr.  Pepys  and  his  wife  were  there, 
having  tried  for  **a  room  "at  the  Royal  Theatre  in 
vain;  **and  so  to  the  Duke's  house;  and  there  saw 
*Hamlett'  done,  giving  us  fresh  reason  never  to  think 
enough  of  Betterton."  This  was  the  first  performance 
of  Hamlet  by  Betterton,  then  a  young  man  of  between 
twenty-five  and  thirty  years  of  age.  "And  he  con- 
tinued to  act  it,"  says  Downes,  "with  great  spirit  and 
with  much  applause  till  the  last  year  of  his  life."  Sir 
William  Davenant,  so  runs  the  prompter's  note,  had 
seen  the  part  taken  by  Joseph  Taylor,  of  the  Blackfriars 
Company,  and  Taylor  had  been  "instructed  by  the 
author,  Mr.  Shakespeare."  "Sir  William  taught  Mr. 
Betterton  in  every  particle  of  it,  which  by  the  exact 
performance  of  it  gained  him  esteem  and  reputation 
superlative  to  all  other  players."^  We  cannot  be  sure 
that  Taylor  was  taught  by  Shakespeare  himself.  He 
is  believed  to  have  been  a  member  of  the  King's  Com- 
pany before  161 3,  and  to  have  left  it  for  a  time  before 
Shakespeare's  death.  He  was,  in  any  event,  the  first 
actor  who  can  be  identified  as  having  played  the  Prince 
of  Denmark ;  and  Wright,  in  the  Historia  Histrionica 
(1699),  said  "he  performed  that  part  incomparably 
well."  If  it  be  true  that  Shakespeare  had  acted  the 
Ghost,  and  that  Betterton  received  the  tradition  of  his 
methods,  we  should  recall  that  evening  at  Drury  Lane, 

^  Roscius  Angl-icanuSi  pp.  29,  30. 


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TRADITIONS  OF  HIS   FELLOW-ACTORS     57 

when  Addison  sat  by  Steele,  and  asked  if  it  was 
necessary  for  Hamlet  to  rant  and  rave  at  his  father's 
spirit.  Steele  afterwards  showed,  in  the  Tatier,  into 
what  light  Betterton  had  thrown  the  scene.  His  voice 
never  rose  with  a  **  wild  defiance  "  of  what  he  naturally 
revered.  There  was  first  a  pause  of  mute  amazement ; 
**then,  rising  slowly  to  a  solemn,  trembling  voice,  he 
made  the  ghost  equally  terrible  to  the  spectators  as 
to  himself." 

On  December  23rd,  in  the  same  year,  Pepys  makes 
this  note :  **  I  perceive  the  King  and  Duke  and  all  the 
Court    was    going    to  the   Duke's    Playhouse  to  see 

*  Henry  the  Eighth '  acted,  which  is  said  to  be  an 
admirable  Play."^  He  was  unfortunately  under  a  vow 
not  to  go  inside  a  theatre  for  six  months ;  and  it  was 
very  irksome  indeed  to  be  told  by  one  of  his  friends  of 
the  goodness  of  the  new  piece,  "which  made  me  think 
it  long  till  my  time  is  out."  On  New  Year's  Day  he  was 
free,  and  went  oflF  at  once  to  Portugal  Row,  with  what 
result  appears  from  his  diary:  "My  wife  and  I  rose 
from  table,  pretending  business,  and  went  to  the  Duke's 
house  .  .  .  and  there  saw  the  so  much  cried-up  play  of 

*  Henry  the  Eighth';  which,  though  I  went  with  reso- 
lution to  like  it,  is  so  simple  a  thing  made  up  of  a  great 
many  patches,  that,  besides  the  shows  and  processions 
in  it,  there  is  nothing  in  the  world  good  or  well  done." 
Some  years  afterwards  his  tastes  changed,  for  he  notes 
on  December  30th,  1668,  that  he  took  his  wife  to  the 
same  play,  "  and  was  mightily  pleased,  better  than 
I  ever  expected,  with  the  history  and  shows  of  it." 
Downes  described  it  as  seen  from  the  prompter's  box. 
"King  Henry  the  8th.  This  Play,  by  order  of  Sir 
Wtlliam  Davenanly  was  all  new  cloathed  m  proper 
habits:    the    King's   was   new,    and   all    the    Lords, 

'  See  also  under  Dec.  loth.     "A  rare  play,  to  be  acted  this  week  of 
Sir  William  Davenanf  s.     The  story  of  Henry  the  Eighth  with  all  his 


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58  SHAKESPEARE'S  EARLY  LIFE 

the  Cardinals,  the  Bishops,  the  DoctorSi  Proctors, 
Lawyers,  Tipstaves,  new  Scenes.  The  part  of  the 
King  was  so  right  and  justly  done  by  Mr.  Bettertaftj 
he  being  instructed  in  it  by  Sir  William,  who  had 
it  from  old  Mr.  Ltmetiy  that  had  his  instructions 
from  Mr,  Shakespear  himself  that  I  dare  and  will 
aver,  none  can,  or  ever  will  come  near  him  in 
this  age,  in  the  performance  of  this  part."^  Downes, 
the  prompter,  credited  Shakespeare  with  the  whole 
play  and  all  the  stage  directions,  and  was  thus  led 
to  think  that  the  poet  took  the  most  ^indefatigable 
pains  to  feed  the  eye.*'  For  the  vision  of  Spirits,  Shake- 
speare's ^Mittle  Pantomime,"  he  had  no  praise,  except 
that  it  showed  some  fancy.  The  grave  congies  and 
stately  courtesies  put  him  in  mind  of  Bayes'  grand 
dance.  Perhaps  the  Duke  of  Buckingham  borrowed  a 
hint  of  it  from  the  Queen's  vision.  "Enter,  solemnly 
tripping  one  after  another,  six  personages,  clad  in 
white  robes,  wearing  on  their  heads  garlands  of  bays, 
and  golden  vizards  on  their  faces  " :  they  wave  a  spare 
garland  over  the  sleeper,  ''  and  so  in  their  (lancing  they 
vanish,  carrying  the  garland  with  them.  The  music 
continues."^  We  should  compare  the  stage-direction 
in  The  Tempest^  where  the  airy  dancers  are  suddenly 
disturbed  when  Prospero  starts  and  speaks;  "after 
which,  to  a  strange,  hollow,  and  confused  noise,  they 
heavily  vanish."'  The  Duke  of  Buckingham  laughs 
at  them  all  alike,  when  he  makes  Mr.  Bayes  chide  the 
players :  "  You  dance  worse  than  the  Angels  in  Harry 
the  Eight,  or  the  fat  Spirits  in  The  Tempest:'^ 

We  need  not  believe  that  Taylor  was  selected  by 
Shakespeare  for  the  Prince  of  Denmark,  or  Lowin  for 
his  fat  Knight.     Lowin  joined  the  King's  Company  in 

^  Roscius  Anglicanus,  P«  34-  '  Henry  VIII,  ^  iv.  2. 

'  Tempest,  tv.  x. 

^  The  Rehearsal^  \u  5.    The  grand  dance  mentioned  above  wUl  be  found 
ibitL^  V.  I. 


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ALLEGED  LETTER  FROM  THE   KING    59 

1604,^  ^^^  ^^^  Jonson  had  already  (1599)  spoken  of 
Sir  John  in  his  Evety  Man  out  of  his  Humour.  Burbage 
took  the  part  of  Macilente,  which  suited  his  spare  figure 
very  well.  Jonson  would  not  beg  of  the  audience  **a 
plaudite  for  God's  sake :  but  if  you,  out  of  the  bounty  of 
your  good  liking,  will  bestow  it,  why,  you  may  make 
lean  Macilente  as  fat  as  Sir  John  Falstafif."  ^  He  appears 
to  include  both  parts  of  Henry  IV.  in  his  reference  to  the 
popular  favourite.  Lowin  doubtless  succeeded  to  the 
post  very  early  after  joining  the  company,  and  would 
know  how  Shakespeare  wished  it  to  be  played;  and 
Taylor  in  the  same  way  learned  what  the  poet  meant 
by  the  distinction  between  the  whirlwind  of  passion, 
with  smoothness,  and  the  same  passion  torn  into 
tatters.^ 

VI 

William  Oldys  showed  in  a  note  on  his  Fuller's 
Worthies^  now  in  the  British  Museum,  that  the  story 
of  the  King  writing  to  Shakespeare  came  through 
Davenant  to  John  Sheffield,  Duke  of  Buckinghamshire, 
an  authority  of  some  distinction  in  literature.  In  his 
commonplace  book  the  Duke  wrote:  **King  James 
the  First  honoured  Shakespeare  with  an  epistolary 
correspondence,  and  I  think  Sir  William  Davenant 
had  either  seen  or  was  possessed  of  His  Majesty's  letter 
to  him."  Oldys,  who  referred  to  the  preface  in 
Lintot's  edition  of  Shakespeare^ s  Poems  (1709),  where 

*  A.  W.  Ward,  i*,5.,  tL  137,  says:  "There  is  ...  no  proof  that  he 
(Lowin)  was  the  original  performer  of  the  part,  and  it  is  hardly  likely  to 
have  been  allotted  to  so  young  a  man  (he  was  bom  in  1576). "  This  opinion 
is  further  confirmed  by  the  words  of  Roberts,  the  actor,  in  1729,  quoted 
by  Halliwell-Phillipps,  «.f.,  i.  243 :  '*I  am  apt  to  think,  he  (Lowin)  did 
not  rise  to  his  perfection  and  most  exalted  state  in  the  theatre  till  after 
Burbage,  tho'  he  play'd  what  we  call  second  and  third  characters  in  his 
time,  and  particularly  Henry  the  Eighth  originally ;  from  an  observation 
of  whose  acting  it  in  his  later  days  Sir  William  Davenant  conveyed  his 
instructions  to  Mr.  Betterton." 

^  Every  Man  out  of  his  Humour,  v.  7.        '  See  Hamlet,  iii.  2,  1-16. 


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6o  SHAKESPEARE'S   EARLY   LIFE 

it  was  said  that  "King  James  the  First  was  pleased 
with  his  own  hand  to  write  an  amicable  letter  to 
Mr.  Shakespeare ;  which  letter,  though  now  lost,  re- 
mained long  in  the  hands  of  Sir  William  Davenant, 
as  a  credible  person,  now  living,  can  testify."  This 
person  was  doubtless  the  Duke  of  Buckinghamshire, 
who  died  in  1721.  Dr.  Farmer  tried  to  guess  what  was 
in  the  letter — something  such  as  thanks  for  compliments 
in  Macbeth;  but  all  such  attempts  are  useless.  As  to 
the  custody  of  the  document,  we  may  fairly  suppose 
that  it  belonged  to  Lady  Barnard  about  the  time  of 
Davenant's  death  in  1668.  It  would  have  passed  under 
Shakespeare's  will  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hall,  remaining 
with  Mrs.  Hall  on  her  husband's  death.  Mr.  Hall 
tried  to  make  a  verbal  will,  but  did  not  name  an 
executor ;  he  intended  Thomas  Nash  to  have  his  pro- 
fessional manuscripts:  ^'I  would  have  given  them  to 
Mr.  Boles,"  he  said,  "if  hee  had  been  here;  but 
forasmuch  as  hee  is  not  heere  present,  yow  may,  son 
Nash,  burne  them,  or  doe  with  them  what  yow  please."^ 
Mrs.  Hall  administered  the  estate,  with  a  record  of  the 
imperfect  gift  as  part  of  her  authority ;  but  there  is 
no  reason  to  think  that  she  gave  up  the  letter  in 
question.  Elizabeth  Nash,  two  years  after  her  hus- 
band's death,  married  Mr.  Barnard,  afterwards  knighted, 
and  on  succeeding  to  her  mother's  property,  lived  at 
New  Place  for  a  time. 

In  1742,  Sir  Hugh  Clopton  told  Mr.  Macklin,  the 
actor,  when  he  visited  Stratford  in  company  with 
Garrick,  that  Lady  Barnard,  on  leaving  the  town, 
"carried  away  many  of  her  grandfather's  papers." 
Others  remained  at  Stratford,  and  came  with  the 
probate  of  Lady  Barnard's  will  into  the  possession  of 
Mr.  R.  B.  Wheler,  who  printed  some  of  them  in  the 
appendix  to  his  History. 

^  Nuncupative  will  of  John  Hall,  printed  by  Halliwell-Phillipps,  ii.  6i. 


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STRATFORD-ON-AVON 


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STRATFORD-ON-AVON 


I 


ORIGIN  OF  NAME — PREHISTORIC  REMAINS;  PATHLOW  AND  THE 
LIBERTY  —  ROMAN  ROADS  IN  WARWICKSHIRE  —  RYKNIELD 
STREET  IN   "CYMBELINE" 

STRATFORD,  as  its  name  implies,  marks  the  point 
where  a  ** street, "or  paved  Roman  road,  led  down 
to  a  passage  across  the  Avon.  At  first  there  was  only  a 
ford ;  in  later  ages,  as  Leland  ^  tells  us,  a  poor  wooden 
bridge  was  set  up,  which  must  have  spoiled  the  old 
access,  and  yet  was  a  danger  in  itself.  ^' There  was 
no  causeway  to  come  to  it,"  says  the  historian,  '^  where* 
by  many  poor  folks  either  refused  to  come  to  Stratford 
when  the  river  was  up,  or  coming  thither  stood  in 
jeopardy  of  life " ;  until  at  last  Lord  Mayor  Clopton, 
in  the  reign  of  Henry  VII.,  made  **the  great  and 
sumptuous  bridge"  with  ''fourteen  great  arches  and  a 
long  causeway,  made  of  stone,  well  walled  on  each 
side,  at  the  west  end  of  the  bridge." 

The  neighbourhood  had  been  inhabited  in  prehistoric 
times  by  the  tribes  that  made  the  barrows  and  stone 
circles.     Several  of  the  great  "lowes,"  or  **  graves," 

^  See  Leland's  Itinerary,  ed.  Hearne,  17 10-12,  vol.  iv.  part  ii.  pp.  52-3, 
for  notices  of  Stratford  quoted  in  these  pages. 

63 


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64  STRATFORD-ON-AVON 

were  adopted  in  later  ages  as  meeting-places  for  the 
open-air  Courts,  at  which  the  Sherifif  or  owner  of  a 
Liberty  transacted  the  affairs  of  a  district.  The 
Hundred  of  Knightlow,  for  instance,  took  its  name 
from  Knightlow  Hill,  on  the  road  from  Coventry  to 
London ;  on  the  summit  was  a  British  tumulus,  on 
which  a  wayside  cross  had  been  erected.*  The  Hundred 
of  Barlichway,  in  which  Stratford  is  included,  held  its 
Court  in  Barlichway  Grove,  described  as  '*a  little  plot 
of  ground,  about  eight  yards  square,  now  inclosed 
with  a  hedge  and  situate  upon  the  top  of  a  hill.'**  The 
town  was  in  earlier  times  comprised  in  the  Liberty  of 
Pathlow,  or  "Pate's  Grave";  here  the  Bishops  of 
Worcester  had  a  Hundred  Court  of  their  own,  with 
a  jurisdiction  extending  over  many  towns  and  villages, 
among  which  were  Bishopton,  Luddington,  and  Wilm- 
cote,  though  most  of  them,  according  to  Dugdale, 
were  almost  lost  by  neglect  or  the  corruption  of  bailiffs. 
The  place,  it  was  added,  that  gave  its  name  to  this 
Hundred  **is  an  heap  of  earth  ...  in  the  very  way 
betwixt  Warwick  and  Alcester  .  .  .  near  unto  it  are 
certain  enclosed  grounds  .  .  .  bearing  the  name  of 
Pathlows,"  where  Courts  were  held  twice  a  year.^  If 
we  refer  to  The  Taming  of  the  ShreWy  and  what  Lang- 
baine's  editor  calls  **the  story  of  the  tinker,  so  divert- 
ing," we  should  note  that  it  was  to  one  of  these  Courts 
that  the  ale-wife  was  to  be  summoned  for  serving  the 

^  Murray's  Handbook  oj  Warwickshire,  1899,  p.  18.  Knig^htlow  is  the 
most  easterly  of  the  four  Hundreds — Hemlingford,  Barlichway,  Kineton, 
Knightlow — into  which  Warwickshire  is  divided.  It  comprises  four  sub- 
divisions— Kenilworth,  Southam,  Rug-by,  and  Kirby,  called  after  the 
chief  towns  and  villages  included  in  it. 

^  Dugdale,  Antiquities  of  Warwickshire ,  ed.  Thomas,  1730,  vol.  ii. 

p.  641.    Barlichway  Hundred  is  the  south-western  portion  of  the  county, 

'  including  a  tract  of  land  almost  square  in  shape.     Its  subdivisions  are, 

on  the  west,  Henley-in-Arden  and  Alcester ;  on  the  east,  Snitterfield  and 

Stratford. 

•  Dugdale,  «.j.,  vol.  ii.  641-2.  Pathlow  is  three  miles  north-west  of 
Stratford,  on  the  road  to  Wootton  Wawen  and  Henley-tn-Arden. 


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EARLY  HISTORY  OF.  DISTRICT         65 

drink  in  *' unsealed  quarts."^  The  Bishops  also  held 
a  three- weeks  Court  called  ^'Gilpit";  and  the  name 
evidently  referred  to  the  high-road  from  Stratford  to 
Birmingham,  which  was  commonly  known  as  Guild- 
pits,  from  some  right  of  digging  stones  or  gravel  on 
land  belonging  to  the  Stratford  Guild. 

The  choice  of  Stratford  as  a  Roman  station  was  due 
to  the  course  and  disposition  of  the  various  military 
roads.  Any  map  of  the  Roman  province  will  show 
that  the  place  lies  at  the  lower  entrance  of  a  wedge- 
shaped  district  inclosed  on  three  sides  by  the  Watling 
Street,  the  Fosse  Way,  and  the  road  between  Gloucester 
and  Doncaster,  which  is  now  called  the  Ryknield  Street. 
The  last-named  road  passed  along  the  western  side  of 
Warwickshire,  from  Alcester  to  the  neighbourhood  of 
Birmingham.  It  was  often  called  the  Icknield  Way  by 
the  older  antiquarians ;  but  it  is  more  convenient  to  keep 
that  name  for  the  better-known  road  which  passed 
across  the  eastern  part  of  the  districts  between  the 
Wash  and  Southampton  Water,^  and  so  westward  into 
Devon  and  Cornwall. 

We  shall  say  a  word  or  two  as  to  each  of  the  great 
highways,  which  by  their  intersections  and  branches 
completely  inclosed  the  woodlands  of  Arden.  The 
first  to  be  made  was  the  Watling  Street,  which  passed 
obliquely  from  the  Kentish  coast  to  the  Thames  at 
the  Westminster  Ford,  and  so  to  Verulam  and  the 
Temple  of  Diana  in  the  market-place  at  Dunstable. 
On  the  border  of  Leicestershire  and  Warwickshire  it 
passed  a  place  now  called  High  Cross,  where  its  course 
was  intersected,  as  time  went  on,  by  the  Fosse  Way.^ 

*  Taming  of  the  Shrew,  Ind.,  2,  89-90  :— 
"  You  would  present  her  at  the  leet, 
Because  she  brought  stone  jugs  and  no  seai'd  quarts." 
■  Icknield  Street,  and  Icknield  Port  Road,  in  the  western  portion  of 
Birmingham,  indicate,  under  the  more  familiar  form,  the  course  of  the 
Ryknield  Way  through  the  city. 
'  High  Cross  (Benonoe,  or  Venonoe)  lies  in  Great  Copstone  Parish, 
F 


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66  STRATFORD-ON-AVON 

Near  Wall  (Letocetum),  two  miles  south  of  Lichfield,  it 
was  similarly  intersected  by  the  Ryknield  Street.  We 
need  not  trace  minutely  the  rest  of  its  course ;  turning 
due  west  at  Wall,  it  passed  to  Uriconium  or  Viro- 
conium  (Wroxeter),  **the  White  Town  by  the  Wrekin," 
and  eventually,  taking  a  north-westerly  course,  met 
the  sacred  waters  of  the  Dee  at  Deva  (Chester).  Its 
branches  were  in  North  Wales  and  Mid-Britain,  and 
ran  toward  each  extremity  of  the  Roman  Wall.  When 
the  English  invaders  saw  it,  lying  like  a  beam  of  light 
across  the  land,  they  gave  it  the  name  of  Watling 
Street,  which  was  their  legendary  title  for  the  ''path 
of  souls  "  along  the  Galaxy,  or  Milky  Way. 

The  Fosse  Way  connected  the  military  hospitals  at 
Bath  with  the  colony  of  veterans  at  Lincoln,  where  it 
joined  other  roads  from  the  south  by  which  supplies  and 
reliefs  were  sent  to  the  fortresses  by  the  wall.  The 
mediaeval  chroniclers  were  fond  of  a  jingling  phrase 
about  the  road  running  **from  Totnes  to  Caithness," 
which  Drayton  adopted  in  those  lines  of  the  Poly^Olbion 
that  tell  us  of  the  passing  of  the  Fosse : — 

**  From  where  rich  Cornwall  points  to  the  Iberian  seas, 
Till  colder  Cathnes  tells  the  scattered  Orcades.^ 

between  Lutterworth  and  Nuneaton,  440  feet  above  sea-level.  A  pillar, 
erected  in  171 1  by  the  neig'hbouring-  gentry,  to  commemorate  the  restora- 
tion of  peace,  bears  a  Latin  inscription  (translated  in  Murray's  Warwick^ 
shire,  p.  8) :  *'  If,  traveller,  you  search  for  the  footsteps  of  the  ancient 
Romans,  you  may  here  behold  them.  For  here  their  most  celebrated 
ways,  crossing  one  another,  extend  to  the  utmost  boundaries  of  Britain ; 
here  the  Vennones  kept  their  quarters ;  and,  at  the  distance  of  one  mile 
from  here,  Claudius,  a  certain  commander  of  a  cohort,  seems  to  have 
had  a  camp  towards  the  street :  and  towards  the  fosse,  a  tomb."  See 
Dra3rton,  Poly-Olbum,  13th  song,  311-13 : — 

"that  Cross 

Where  those  two  mighty  ways,  the  Watling  and  the  Fosse, 

Our  centre  seem  to  cut." 
Watling  Street  continues  its  progress  W.N.W.  to  Mancetter  (Mandues- 
sedum),  ten  miles  distant;  the  Fosse  Way  proceeds  N.N.E.  to  Leicester 
(Rats)  thirteen  miles. 

^  Poly-Olbian,  song  xvi.  105-6.  Cf.  ieL,  xiii.  315-16,  "from  MichaeVs 
utmost  Mount,  to  Cathnesse," 


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ROMAN   ROADS  IN  WARWICKSHIRE    67 

About  ten  miles  south  of  Stratford  its  route  is  marked 
by  Stretton-on-the-Foss,  and  six  miles  north  of  Stretton, 
by  the  site  of  a  station  that  guarded  the  Stour  at 
Halford.  **  Through  all  this  county,"  says  Gale  in  his 
essay  on  the  Four  Great  Ways,  '*the  course  of  it  is 
very  plain  and  conspicuous  "  ;  near  Street-Ashton  and 
Monk's  Kirby,  he  adds,  ^'part  of  it  lies  open  like  a 
ditch,  having  not  been  filled  with  stones  and  gravel  as 
in  most  other  places."^ 

The  third  side  of  our  oblong  or  cofBn-shaped  figure 
was  formed  by  the  road  from  South  Wales  and 
Gloucester.  Where  it  enters  Warwickshire  we  trace  it 
from  ford  to  ford,  all  occupied  as  military  stations.  Of 
these  we  have  Bidford-on-Avon,  and  Wixford,  and  the 
Roman  station  at  Alcester  (Alauna),  where  there  is  a 
confluence  of  rivers.  Dugdale  thought  that  ^'Ickle 
Street,"  in  this  town,  must  have  been  named  after  the 
old  military  way ;  and,  at  any  rate,  Roman  tiles  and 
other  antiquities,  including  many  gold  and  silver  coins, 
have  been  found  there  at  different  times.  The  Ryknield 
Street  passed  through  Coughton,  and  thence  to  a  point 
near  Birmingham,*  where  it  entered  Staffordshire, 
and  "there  running  thro'  Sutton  Park  and  by  Shenstatiy 
cutts  the  Watling  Street  scarce  a  mile  East  from 
Wall  and  Litchfield.''^  Drayton  seems  to  have  felt  a 
patriotic  afifection  for  this  Warwickshire  road,  watching 
it  from  its  birth  on  the  shore  of  the  Irish  Sea  to  its  final 
resting-stage  at  the  foot  of  the  Roman  wall.  In 
Pofy'Olbion  he  is  so  bold  as  to  personify  the  Watling 
Street,  or  the  Spirit  of  the  Road,  as  a  kind  of  genius 

^  See  Gale's  essay,  printed  in  Heame's  Leland,  vi.  99.  Street  Ashton 
is  in  Monk's  Kirby  parish,  some  four  miles  south  of  the  junction  with 
Watling  Street  at  High  Cross.  A  mile  south-west,  nearer  the  actual 
course  of  the  street,  is  Stretton-under-Fosse,  not  to  be  confused  with 
Stretton-on-the-Foss.  The  progress  of  the  street  over  Dunsmore  Heath, 
further  south  again,  is  marked  by  Stretton-on-Dunsmore. 

*  Near  Perry-Bar,  in  the  northern  suburbs  of  the  city. 

'  Gale's  essay,  in  Leland^  u.s,f  vol.  vi. 


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68  STRATFORD-ON-AVON 

loci,^   who  tells  the  tale  of  the   Ryknield  struggling 
northwards  after  Fosse  Way : — 

**  Then  in  his  oblique  course  the  lusty  straggling  Street 
Soon  overtook  the  Fosse;  and  toward  the  fall  of  Tine^ 
Into  the  German  Sea  dissolved  at  his  decline." 

The  neck  of  the  oblong  figure  was  the  narrow  space 
between  the  fort  at  Bidford-on-Avon  and  the  post  at 
Halfordy  where  the  Fosse  Way  crossed  the  Stour.*  If 
the  wild  tribes  of  Arden  were  to  be  kept  in  place,  it  was 
necessary  to  occupy  their  passage  of  the  Avon  at  Strat- 
ford and  to  make  a  junction  between  the  two  northward 
lines ;  and  this  object  was  attained  by  driving  a  road 
from  Bidford  and  Alcester  to  Stratford,  and  thence 
across  the  ford  to  the  station  on  the  Stour.  This,  we 
suppose,  must  have  been  the  time  when  Stratford  first 
began  to  exist  as  a  village,  with  a  guard-house,  a 
posting-station,  and  such  other  subsidiary  dwelling- 
places  as  would  be  required. 

Shakespeare  has  made  repeated  allusions  in  Cymbe- 
line  to  the  Ryknield  Street.  It  will  be  remembered 
that  in  a  large  sense  the  name  was  given  to  the  whole 
route  from  the  extremity  of  South  Wales  to  the  Tyne. 
The  portions  west  of  Gloucester  were  also  known  as 
the  Julia  Strata,  a  term  which  may  have  some  connec- 
tion with  Julius  Caesar,  or  with  Julius  Frontinus,  who 
subdued  the  valley  of  the  Severn  ;  but  it  seems  to  be, 
in  reality,  a  late  fabrication,  the  name  being  derived 
from  Striguil,  from  which  the  De  Clares,  Earls  of 
Pembroke  and  Striguil,  and  their  successors,  the 
Marshals,  took  their  second  title.* 

It  need  not  be  supposed  that  the   poet  gave  any 

^  Poly-OUnon^  xvi.  20-219. 

^  As  the  crow  flies,  this  is  about  ten  miles'  distance. 

'  Striguil,  or  Strigful  (Strigfulia),  was  a  castle  some  four  miles  from 
Chepstow  on  the  road  to  Abergavenny.  The  name,  however,  became 
applied  in  common  usage  to  the  greater  castle  at  Chepstow,  in  the  same 
lordship.  See  note  in  Bohn's  Giraldus  Cambrensis  (ed.  Forester  and 
Wright),  p.  186. 


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RYKNIELD  STREET  69 

credit  to  the  Romans  for  the  construction  of  the  mili- 
tary roads.  It  was  in  his  time  an  article  of  popular  belief 
that  the  Britons  had  been  more  or  less  civilised  ever 
since  the  arrival  of  **  Brutus  the  Trojan,"  long  before 
King  Bladud  had  found  the  seething  springs  of  Bath, 
or  King  Lear  had  set  up  his  throne  in  Leicester ;  and 
Lear  and  Cordelia,  as  the  chroniclers  said,^  were  dead 
and  gone  before  the  first  stone  had  been  cut  for  the 
walls  of  Rome.  The  great  highways,  it  was  thought, 
were  placed  under  the  King's  peace  by  Mulmutius, 
who  first  reunited  **the  five  kingdoms  of  Britain"; 
he  was  said  to  have  passed  a  code  of  laws,  of  which 
fragments  are  still  reputed  to  exist  in  Wales ;  and  we 
are  told  that  after  a  prosperous  reign  of  forty  years 
he  died  in  *' London,  or  New  Troy,"  and  was  buried 
near  the  Temple  of  Concord.  Another  name  for  the 
capital  is  used  at  the  end  of  the  play,  where  Cymbeline 
proposes  to  set  the  seal  on  his  victory  in  London : 

**  So  through  Lud's-town  march : 
And  in  the  temple  of  great  Jupiter 
Our  peace  we'll  ratify."^ 

Shakespeare  follows  Holinshed  in  the  main,  and  does 
not  seem  to  have  been  acquainted  with  the  romance 
of  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth ;  otherwise,  instead  of  the 
lines  about  *'giglot  fortune,"  and  the  lost  chance  of 
capturing  Caesar's  sword,^  we  must  have  had  the 
legend  of  the  slain  Prince  Nennius  actually  carrying 
to  his  grave  that  **  Yellow  Death,"  so  called  because 
none  could  recover  from  a  blow  with  its  brassy  blade. 
**  You  must  know,"  says  the  King  in  the  play, 

*'Till  the  injurious  Romans  did  extort 
This  tribute  from  us,  we  were  free."* 

^  See  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth,  libb.  i.  ii.,  for  the  early  source  of  these 
mythical  histories.  ^  Cymbeline,  v.  5,  481-3 ;  also  iii.  i,  32. 

'  Id,f  iii.  I,  30-1 :  '*  Cassibelan,  who  was  once  at  point — O  giglot 
fortune  I —to  master  Cssar's  sword."  The  story  of  Nennius  will  be 
found  in  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth,  lib,  iv.  cap,  4. 

*  Cymbeline f  iii.  i,  48*50. 


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70  STRATFORD-ON-AVON 

**  Britain  is 
A  world  by  itself," 

says  rough  Prince  Cloten,  in  a  highly  classical  phrase, 

**  and  we  will  nothing  pay 
For  wearing  our  own  noses."* 

The  King's  speech  to  the  Roman  ambassador  is  full  of 
reverence  for  the  royal  road-maker  : — 

''  Our  ancestor  was  that  Mulmutius  which 
Ordain'd  our  laws,  whose  use  the  sword  of  Caesar 
Hath  too  much  mangled ;  whose  repair  and  franchise 
Shall,  by  the  power  we  hold,  be  our  good  deed, 
Though  Rome  be  therefore  angry  :  Mulmutius  made 

our  laws. 
Who  was  the  first  of  Britain  which  did  put 
His  brows  within  a  golden  crown  and  call'd 
Himself  aking."^ 

The  Queen  speaks  bravely  of  Julius  Caesar,  and  his 
brag  of  "'Came'  and  *saw'  and  *  overcame'";  but 
here  in  Britain, 

''  ribbed  and  paled  in 
With  rocks  unscaleable  and  roaring  waters," 

and  the  Goodwin  Sands  to  suck  in  his  ships  to  the 
topmast,  Caesar,  she  said,  was  carried  ofif  from  our 
coast  twice  beaten.*  This  accounts  for  the  selection 
of  Milford  Haven,  on  the  western  extension  of  the 
Ryknield  Street,  as  the  port  from  which  the  voyages 
to  Italy  were  made,  and  as  the  landing-place  for  the 
"legions  garrison'd  in  Gallia."*  It  was  apparently 
from  Milford  that  Posthumus  set  forth  to  "that  drug- 
damn'd  Italy,"^  and  here,  when  his  mind  was  poisoned, 
he  appointed  a  treacherous  ambush  for  fair  Imogen. 

*  Ibid,,  12-14. 

^  Ibid,,  55-62.  See  Pofy-Olbion,  xvi.  97  :  "Since  us,  his  kingly  Ways, 
Mulmutius  first  began,"  and  Selden's  note  on  the  passage.  Mulmutius, 
Molmutius,  or  Malmutius,  is  said  to  be  commemorated  in  the  name  of 
Malmesbury.   Etymologists,  however,  prefer  a  more  historical  derivation. 

'  Cymbeline,  u,s,,  14-33.  *  Id.,  iv,  2,  333-6.  *  Id.,  iil  4,  15. 


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RYKNIELD  STREET  IN  CYMBELINE    71 

The  lady  reads  his  letter:    **Take  notice,  that  I  am 
in  Cambria,  at  Milford  Haven." 
She  cries : 

**  O  for  a  horse  with  wings  !     Hear'st  thou,  Pisanio? 
He  is  at  Milford  Haven  :  read,  and  tell  me 
How  far  'tis  thither.     If  one  of  mean  affairs 
May  plod  it  in  a  week,  why  may  not  I 
Glide  thither  in  a  day  ? 

...  by  the  way, 
Tell  me  how  Wales  was  made  so  happy  as 
To  inherit  such  a  haven.  "^ 


II 

MEDIEVAL  STRATFORD  :  ITS  CONNECTION  WITH  THE  BISHOPS  OP 
WORCESTER — GROWTH  OF  THE  TOWN  —  THE  FAIRS  AND 
MARKETS — EPISCOPAL  RIGHTS  IN  STRATFORD— OFFICERS  OF 
THE  MEDIEVAL  BOROUGH 

We  now  pass  onward  to  a  time  when  Stratford 
formed  part  of  a  large  agricultural  domain  belonging 
to  the  Crown  of  Mercia.  The  chronicler  tells  us  that 
the  details  of  the  English  conquests'  in  these  parts 
were  never  recorded  in  history.  **  Many  and  frequent 
were  the  expeditions  from  Germany,  and  many  the 
lords  who  strove  against  each  other;  but  the  names 
of  the  chieftains  are  unknown  by  reason  of  their  very 
multitude."  Mercia,  we  suppose,  was  at  one  time 
composed  of  a  number  of  independent  states,  which 
were  gradually  fused  into  a  single  monarchy.  In  the 
middle  of  the  ninth  century  it  was  still  in  form  a 
kingdom  by  itself;  but  in  fact  it  had  become  a  de- 
pendency of  Wessex  under  Ethelwulf,  the  father  of 
Alfred.  Shortly  before  the  year  840,  King  Bertulf 
of  Mercia  had  deprived  the  Bishop  of  Worcester  of 
several  valuable  estates,  and  the  injured  prelate  deter- 
mined to  make  an  appeal  to  the  "  Witan,"  or  Council. 

^  Id.y  iii.  2,  44-63. 


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72  STRATFORD-ONAVON 

Accordingly  at  Easter  in  that  year  he  attended  the 
Court  which  Bertulf  and  his  Queen  Sedrida  were 
holding  in  their  royal  town  of  Tamworth.  The  Bishop 
pleaded  before  the  solemn  assembly,  and  gained  his 
cause,  but  not  without  a  grievous  ransom ;  for  the  King 
demanded  four  warhorses,  and  a  fine  ring,  and  heavy 
silver  dishes  and  goblets ;  and  the  avaricious  Sedrida 
claimed  two  palfreys,  and  a  parcel-gilt  cup,  and  silver 
wine-stoups,  and  other  valuable  oflferings.  On  these 
terms  the  Church  recovered  the  estates,  freed  from 
all  burdens  of  royal  exaction.  The  Bishop  found 
a  way  of  recouping  himself  a  few  years  afterwards, 
when  the  King  of  Wessex  was  away  on  a  pilgrimage 
to  Rome,  and  his  people  were  discontented  at  his 
project  of  raising  his  ** child- wife"  Judith  to  the  throne. 
It  was  an  opportunity  for  bringing  the  power  of  the 
Church  to  bear  on  the  tyrant  of  Mercia.  Bishop 
Eadbert,  or  Heabert,  therefore  went  in  the  year  845  to 
the  Yule  Feast  at  Tamworth,  and  asked  the  King  to 
give  up  to  his  Church  at  Worcester  the  estate  which 
had  once  belonged  to  an  old  monastery  at  Stratford-on- 
Avon,  comprising  twenty  farms  of  arable  land  in  the 
common  fields,  besides  the  pastures  and  woodlands. 
A  copy  of  the  King's  deed  of  gift,  duly  confirmed  by 
the  Council,  is  preserved  among  the  Cottonian  Manu- 
scripts.^ It  is  composed  in  a  very  inflated  style,  as  was 
usual  in  the  charters  of  that  age,  and  is  written  in  a 
somewhat  Mercian  kind  of  Latin.  It  somewhat  re- 
sembles those  Kentish  deeds,  which  were  called 
**  Humana  Mens,"  because  they  gave  as  much  free- 
dom as  the  human  mind  could  conceive,  or,  to  quote 
from  Jack  Cade,  who  was  learned  in  Kentish  law,  they 
were  **as  free  as  heart  can  wish  or  tongue  can  tell."* 
The  deed  began  with  a  pious  exordium,  showing  that 

^  Dugdale  g^ives  an  abbreviated  copy,  op,  ctt,  ii.  680,  at  the  beginniog 
of  his  account  of  Stratford. 
'  2  Henry  V/.,  iv.  7,  13 1-2. 


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GRANT  TO  BISHOPS  OF  WORCESTER    73 

Bertulf  wished  to  purchase  an  eternal  reward  by  giving 
up  a  share  of  his  *' transitory  wealth."  ^^  In  nomine 
Domini!^'  he  begins,  *'so  fading  and  fleeting  is  this 
world's  state^  while  all  things  that  we  see  are  rushing 
swifter  than  the  wind  to  their  end."  *'  Therefore,  with 
the  consent  of  my  Bishops  and  Nobles  and  Elders, 
I  give  to  the  venerable  Bishop  Heabert  and  his  house 
at  Worcester  all  my  rights  in  the  monastery  by  the 
Avon  called  Over-Stratford,  with  twenty  farms,  for 
which  I  have  accepted  ten  pounds'  weight  of  silver  in 
consideration  of  the  land  being  made  free  for  ever.  Be 
it  therefore  free  from  all  burdens  of  human  servitude 
and  all  secular  tributes  and  taxes,  the  Church  taking 
her  rightful  profits  in  wood  and  field,  in  meadows  and 
pastures,  in  waters  and  fisheries,"  and  so  forth.  Then 
follows  a  list  of  the  special  exactions  to  which  the  lands 
of  the  Crown  were  liable,  such  as  forced  labour  and 
purveyance  of  food  for  the  King  and  his  retinue,  pro- 
viding meals  for  casual  guests  and  huntsmen,  and  food 
for  the  horses  and  hawks,  and  for  the  boys  that  led  the 
hounds.  In  fine,  **Let  the  land  be  free,"  declared 
the  King,  **from  all  exactions  great  or  small,  known 
or  as  yet  unknown,  so  long  as  the  Christian  religion 
shall  remain  among  the  English  in  this  island  of 
Britain."  The  charter  was  marked  with  the  sign  of  the 
cross  by  Bertulf  and  Sedrida  and  their  eldest  son 
Bertric,  by  several  bishops,  an  abbot,  and  a  priest,  by 
Earl  Humbert  and  the  rest  of  the  nobles  present,  and 
by  a  few  untitled  witnesses  who  may  be  taken  as 
representing  the  Commons  of  Mercia. 

The  Stratford  estate  remained  in  much  the  same  con- 
dition till  the  reign  of  Edward  the  Confessor.  It 
appears  by  the  Domesday  Survey  that  the  extent  of 
the  arable  land  had  somewhat  increased.  There  was 
enough  corn-land  to  occupy  thirty-one  ploughs,  which 
would  represent  about  5,000  acres,  or  a  little  more  or 
less  according  to  the  system  of  rotation  of  crops  adopted 


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74  STRATFORD-ON-AVON 

in  cultivating  plough-lands.  There  were  three  farms 
in  hand,  as  part  of  the  demesne,  and  the  priest  had 
another  for  his  glebe :  there  were  about  half  a  dozen 
labourers  with  allotments  belonging  to  their  cottages ; 
and  the  rest  of  the  parish  was  worked  in  common-field 
by  twenty-one  men  of  the  township.  We  hear  besides 
of  the  mill,  rented  of  the  Bishop  for  ten  shillings  in 
money  and  a  thousand  of  eels,  and  of  a  great  meadow 
by  the  river  more  than  half  a  mile  long,  and  about  two 
furlongs  in  breadth. 

Stratford  did  not  assume  the  appearance  of  a  town 
till  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  century.  The  improve- 
ment was  due  to  John  de  Coutances,  Bishop  of  Wor- 
cester ( 1 195-8),  who,  in  the  seventh  year  of  Richard 
Coeur-de-Lion,  laid  out  the  fields  east  of  Trinity  Church 
in  street  and  building  sites.  Each  plot,  according  to 
his  design,  consisted  of  a  strip  of  land  with  nearly  57 
feet  of  frontage,  and  195  feet  in  depth.  They  were  all 
to  be  freeholds,  being  held  of  the  Bishop  in  burgage- 
tenure,  at  a  ground-rent  of  a  shilling  a  plot.  It  will, 
however,  be  remembered  that  their  size  would  be  altered 
as  new  streets  were  made  from  time  to  time,  and  that  the 
ground-rents  would  be  apportioned  when  the  land  was 
in  any  way  subdivided.  Mr.  J.  Hill,  of  Stratford,  in 
his  essay  on  Shakespeare's  birthplace,  showed  that  an 
alteration  of  this  kind  was  made  in  the  fourteenth 
century,  when  Henley  Street  grew  out  of  a  short  cut 
to  the  Market  Cross,  and  the  Guildpits  highway,  on 
which  the  frontages  had  been  set,  fell  into  the  state  of 
a  back  road.  Some  notion  of  the  change  thus  effected 
may  be  gained  from  the  discussions  about  John  Shake- 
speare's property ;  and  the  cutting-down  in  the  length 
of  the  holdings  between  the  two  streets  will  become 
especially  plain  by  the  documents  relating  to  a  strip  of 
land  half  a  yard  wide,  which  John  Shakespeare  sold  to 
a  neighbour  called  George  Badger.  This  strip  was 
only  twenty-eight  yards  long,  and  yet  it  reached  from 


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GROWTH   OF  THE  TOWN  75 

the  old  highway  to  the  frontage  on  Henley  Street. ^  In 
the  survey  taken  in  October,  1590,  when,  by  the  death 
of  Ambrose,  Earl  of  Warwick,  in  1589,  the  lordship  of 
the  borough  had  reverted  to  the  Crown,  there  are 
passages  which  show  how  carefully  the  original  ground- 
rents  were  maintained.  We  quote  from  the  extracts  as 
to  Henley  Street  selected  by  Mr.  Hill  in  his  essay: 
**The  Bailiff  and  Burgesses  of  the  town  of  Stratford 
are  free  tenants  of  one  tenement  with  the  appurtenances 
by  the  annual  rent  to  the  lord  of  three-pence  .  .  •  John 
Shakespeare,  free  tenant  of  one  tenement  with  the  ap- 
purtenances of  the  annual  rent  of  six-pence :  the  same 
John,  free  tenant  of  a  tenement,  etc.,  by  the  annual 
rent  of  thirteen-pence :  George  Badger,  free  tenant  of 
one  tenement,  etc.,  by  the  annual  rent  to  the  lord  of 
ten-pence,"  and  so  forth.  Very  full  extracts  from  this 
survey  have  also  been  published  by  Mr.  Halliwell- 
Phillipps.^  It  will  be  remembered  that  Shakespeare 
left  part  of  his  Henley  Street  property  to  his  sister, 
Joan  Hart,  for  her  life,  subject  to  a  burden  of  the  same 
kind :  ''  I  doe  will  and  devise  unto  her  the  house  with 
the  appurtenances  in  Stratford,  wherein  she  dwelleth, 
for  her  natural  lief,  under  the  yeaerlie  rent  of  xij**," 
and  the  amount,  says  Mr.  Hill,  may  have  been  in- 
tended as  a  mere  nominal  rent,  ''but  more  likely  the 
rent  payable  to  the  lord,  reduced  from  thirteen-pence 
by  the  apportionment  of  one  penny  in  respect  of  the 
strip  sold  to  Badger." 

Bishop  John  de  Coutances  obtained  the  grant  of  a 
Thursday  market  for  his  new  town,  and  Bishop  Walter 
de  Grey,  in  the  sixteenth  year  of  King  John,  got  a 
charter  for  a  yearly  fair,  ''beginning  on  the  Even  of 
the  Holy  Trinity,  and  to  continue  the  two  next  days 
ensuing."*  This  Trinity  fair  was  confirmed  in  the 
following  reign,  and  the  circumstances  are  remarkable, 

1  See  conveyance,  printed  by  Halliwell-Phillipps,  Outlines^  ii.  13. 
'  /<i,  i.  377.  •  Dug^dale,  u,s. 


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76  STRATFORD-ON-AVON 

not  only  as  giving  an  instance  of  a  movable  fair,  de- 
pending on  the  date  of  Easter,  but  as  showing  a 
persistence  in  the  system  of  Sunday  trading  which  was 
in  most  parts  repugnant  to  public  feeling.  The  dislike 
to  Sunday  fairs  and  markets  appears  to  have  been  due 
in  a  great  measure  to  the  preaching  of  Eustace,  Abbot 
of  Flay,  who  in  the  year  1 200-1  made  a  pilgrimage 
through  England,  exhorting  the  people  in  every  city 
and  town  to  abstain  from  the  evil  practice.^  The 
dispute  ended  in  a  kind  of  compromise ;  for,  though 
Sunday  markets  were  not  forbidden  by  the  law  till 
long  afterwards,  the  judge  usually  sanctioned  a  change 
from  Sunday  to  a  weekday,  in  case  it  was  generally 
desired.  The  town  of  Stratford  seems  to  have  been 
quite  remarkable  for  the  number  of  its  fairs.  Bishop 
William  de  Blois  (1218-36)  set  up  St.  Augustine's  Fair, 
which  began  on  May  25th,  the  eve  of  the  commem- 
oration of  the  English  apostle,  and  lasted  for  four  days. 
Bishop  Walter  de  Cantelupe  (1237-66)  established  the 
Holyrood  Fair,  beginning  on  September  14th,  the 
feast  of  the  Exaltation  of  the  Cross,  and  continuing  for 
two  days  afterwards.  Bishop  GifFard  (1268-1301)  ob- 
tained leave  to  found  another,  to  be  held  on  the  eve, 
day,  and  morrow  of  the  Ascension ;  and  Bishop 
Walter  de  Maydenston  (1313-17),  in  the  reign  of 
Edward  II.,  **  added  another  Fair,  to  be  kept  on  the 
day  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul,  the  29th  of  June,  and 
fifteen  days  after.  "* 

The  nature  of  the  Bishop's  privileges  appears  by  the 
proceedings  before  the  Royal  Commission,  which  sat 
at  Warwick  in  1277,  ^^  inquire  into  illegal  exactions 
and  encroachments  on  the  King's  prerogative.  The 
subjects  of  inquiry  were  much  the  same  as  those  which 
came  before  the  judges  in  their  septennial  visits ;  but 
the  country  had  been  thrown  into  confusion  by  the 
rebellion  of  Simon  de  Montfort  and  the  absence  of  the 

1  Id,,  681.  3  Id,,^^, 

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EPISCOPAL  PRIVILEGES  77 

new  King  upon  a  crusade,  and  it  was  thought  necessary 
to  hold  those  special  inquiries,  with  a  view  to  im- 
mediate reform,  which  are  recorded  in  the  Hundred 
Rolls.  Stratford  still  seems  to  have  been  treated  as 
a  portion  of  the  Liberty  of  Pathlow.  It  is  doubtful, 
indeed,  whether  the  Bishop  had  any  authority  to  allow 
the  townsmen  any  separate  Court,  though  some 
arrangement  was  afterwards  made  by  which  they  trans- 
acted their  own  a£fairs  before  the  Baili£f.  Throughout 
the  whole  district  the  Bishop  had  a  certain  criminal 
jurisdiction,  the  return  of  writs,  and  the  regulation  of 
the  sale  of  bread  and  ale.  He  had  a  gallows  for  the 
execution  of  thieves,  and  a  prison  in  the  town,  as  to 
which  the  jury  remarked  that  John  the  Bailiff  had  let 
a  prisoner  from  Wilmcote  escape  for  a  bribe  of  ten 
shillings.  They  found  also  that  the  Bishop  had  a 
right  of  free-warren  over  his  lands  in  the  parish  of 
Stratford.  This  implies  the  ownership  of  the  pheasants 
and  partridges,  and  hares  and  rablsits  found  in  his 
demesnes ;  and  that  he  also  had  rights  over  the  deer 
appears  by  a  later  trial,  in  which  some  of  the  townsmen 
of  Stratford  were  indicted  for  a  riotous  assembly.  The 
jury  also  presented  the  existence  of  a  market  at  Strat- 
ford from  the  time  of  King  Richard  I.,  and  went  on 
to  give  an  account  of  a  singular  quarrel  about  the  sale 
of  beer  and  ale.  The  dispute  no  doubt  had  arisen 
out  of  a  doubt  as  to  the  Bishop's  powers.  He  certainly 
had  the  management  of  such  matters  in  the  district 
of  Pathlow  as  a  whole,  and  in  the  Manor  of  Stratford 
as  a  portion  of  the  district ;  but  when  he  assumed  the 
right  of  setting  up  a  borough,  it  became  doubtful 
whether  the  royal  authority  would  not  prevail  within 
its  limits.  Towards  the  end  of  the  preceding  reign 
the  judges  had  visited  Stratford,  and  had  appointed 
a  standard  set  of  measures  for  the  sale  of  beer  in 
the  borough.  The  new  gallons  and  quarts  had  been 
used  for  a  time,  but  after  the  battle  of  Evesham  the 


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78  STRATFORD-ON-AVON 

steward  of  the  manor  had  forbidden  the  practice ;  and 
the  men  of  Stratford  still  persisted  in  using  their  local 
pottles,  and  stone  jugs,  and  unsealed  quarts,  in  despite 
of  the  King,  his  Crown,  and  dignity. 

The  supervision  of  the  Assize  of  Bread  and  Ale, 
as  the  franchise  in  question  was  called,  was  always 
delegated  to  an  official  known  as  the  Ale-taster,  or 
Ale-conner,  whose  business  it  was  to  see  that  the 
brewers  and  bakers  furnished  wholesome  provisions  at 
or  under  the  statutory  price.  The  loaf  always  pre- 
served the  same  nominal  value  according  to  its  quality, 
as  ** household  bread,"  or  "white  bread,"  or  fancy 
loaves,  such  as  "wastels"  and  "simnels";  but  the 
weight  varied  according  to  the  value  of  a  quarter  of 
wheat,  and  the  gallon  of  beer  changed  its  price  accord- 
ing to  the  market  value  of  barley.  It  will  be  re- 
membered that  John  Shakespeare  was  appointed  one 
of  the  ale-tasters  for  the  borough  in  1557.  The  nature 
of  his  duties  will  best  appear  by  the  common  form 
of  the  oath,  which  is  found  in  all  the  descriptions  of 
the  Court-leet.  "You  shall  well  and  truly  serve  our 
Lord  the  King  and  the  Lord  of  this  Court  in  the  office 
of  Ale-taster  and  Assizer  for  the  year  to  come :  you 
shall  truly  and  duly  see  that  all  bread  be  weighed  and 
do  contain  such  weight  according  to  the  price  of  wheat 
as  by  the  Statute  in  that  case  is  provided :  you  are 
to  take  care  that  all  brewers  do  brew  good  and  whole- 
some ale  and  beer,  and  that  the  same  shall  not  be  sold 
until  it  is  essayed  by  you,  and  at  such  prices  as  shall 
be  limited  by  the  Justice  of  the  Peace :  and  all  offences 
committed  by  brewers,  bakers,  and  tipplers,  you  shall 
present  to  this  Court,  and  in  everything  else  you  shall 
well  and  truly  behave  yourself,"  etc.  The  steward 
explained  in  his  charge  to  the  jury  how  the  price  was 
to  be  fixed.  "They  which  brew  to  sell  shall  make 
good  ale  and  beer,  and  wholesome  for  man's  body, 
and  when  it  is  ready  they  shall  send  after  the  Tasters, 


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ALE-TASTER  AND  CONSTABLE  79 

who  shall  taste  it  and  set  the  assize."  The  latter  term 
is  explained  as  being  the  top  price  allowed:  ^'if  it  be 
not  worth  that  assize,  they  shall  sell  at  a  lower  price 
after  their  discretion."  When  the  ale-wife,  or  "tippler," 
had  got  a  store  of  "  nappy  ale,"  clear  and  sheer,  to  use 
the  tinker's  phrase,^  a  signal  was  made  by  setting  up 
a  bush,  or  an  ale-stake,  or  a  wooden  hand.  **  When 
the  assize  is  set,  they  should  out  a  sign  and  sell  by 
measures  ensealed,  but  not  by  cups  and  bowls." 

Inasmuch  as  John  Shakespeare  also  served  as  con- 
stable, it  may  be  as  well  to  extract  some  short  account  of 
that  office,  though  the  duties  are  far  better  described  in 
the  conversation  of  Dogberry  and  Verges.  We  need 
hardly  say  that  these  duties  are  now  superseded  by  the 
Acts  for  maintaining  the  police.  Constables  were  or- 
dained, we  are  told,  to  keep  the  peace,  to  apprehend 
felons,  and  to  take  surety  from  persons  making  an 
affray  ;  they  might  arrest  night-walkers  and  vagabonds, 
and  put  beggars  and  vagrant  labourers  into  the  stocks ; 
they  were  to  encourage  archery,  and  to  prevent  un- 
lawful games,  such  as  **  bowling,  dicing,  tabling, 
carding,  or  tennis,"  unless  it  were  at  Christmas,  or 
excepting  a  game  of  bowls  in  a  man's  own  garden  or 
orchard ;  but  it  was  always  to  be  remembered  that 
noblemen,  and  people  with  ;^ioo  a  year  in  land,  might 
give  licences  to  all  who  came  to  their  houses  to  play 
at  bowls,  cards,  dice,  or  any  other  of  the  unlawful 
games.  The  watch,  said  the  old  Acts,  ought  to  be  kept 
all  night  between  Ascension  and  Michaelmas,  and  in 
every  town  twelve  men  should  watch,  and  in  every 
village  six,  or  four  at  least ;  and  if  any  stranger  be 
arrested  he  shall  be  kept  until  the  morning,  and  then  if 
there  is  no  "  suspicion  "  in  him,  he  shall  go  free ;  **  and 
if  any  will  not  obey  the  arrest,  they  ought  to  raise  Hue 
and  Cry."    Everyone  might  arrest  night-walkers  found 

*  Taming'  of  the  Shrew,  Ind.  2,  25 :  **  If  she  say  I  am  not  fourteen 
pence  on  the  score  for  sheer  ale." 


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8o  STRATFORD-ON-AVON 

lurking  or  going  out  of  the  way.  **If  you  meet  the 
Prince  in  the  night,"  says  Dogberry,  "you  may  stay 
him.  .  .  .  Marry,  not  without  the  Prince  be  willing  ; 
for,  indeed  the  watch  ought  to  offend  no  man  ;  and  it  is 
an  offence  to  stay  a  man  against  his  will  I "  ^ 


III 

THE  PARISH  CHURCH  — COLLEGE  OF  PRIESTS  —  LELAND  AND 
LOVEDAY:  THEIR  ACCOUNTS  OF  THE  CHURCH  AND  MONU- 
MENTS 

The  Parish  Church  is  believed  to  have  been  built 
about  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century;*  but 
it  was  much  altered  and  improved  by  John  de  Strat- 
ford, Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  about  the  year  1332.* 
He  built  the  south  aisle  and  the  Chapel  of  St. 
Thomas  of  Canterbury,  in  which  he  established  a 
chantry  served  by  five  priests ;  and  the  local  devotion 
to  the  Martyr  may  account  for  the  large  fresco, 
formerly  existing  in  the  Guild  Chapel,  which  showed 
the  murder  of  the  Saint  by  the  four  knights  before  St. 
Benedict's  altar  in  the  transept  at  Canterbury.  When 
this  chantry  was  turned  into  a  College  in  the  reign  of 
Henry  VI.,  the  Warden  and  Priests  were  endowed  with 
an  estate  of  about  £^o  a  year.  Ralph  de  Stratford, 
Bishop  of  London  (1340-54),  another  eminent  towns- 
man,^ built  the  college-house  or  mansion  for  the 
priests,  which  Leland  described  as  ^^an  ancient  piece 
of  work  of  square-stone  hard  by  the  cemetery."     Dr. 

^  Mudi  Ado  about  Nothing,  iii.  3,  80-1,  85-S. 

^  Short  and  accurately  written  summaries  of  the  architectural  features 
of  the  church  will  be  found  in  Murray's  Warwickshire,  pp.  i  lo-ia,  and 
in  Windle,  Shakespeare* 5  Country ^  pp.  30-1. 

'  John  of  Stratford,  in  1332,  was  Bishop  of  Winchester.  He  was 
translated  to  Canterbury  in  1333,  and  died  in  1348.  He  is  buried  on  the 
south  side  of  the  sanctuary  in  Canterbury  Cathedral. 

*  Ralph  de  Stratford  was  a  nephew  of  the  brothers  John  and  Robert 
During"  his  episcopate  he  rented  a  house  in  Bridge  Street,  Stratford. 


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THE  PARISH  CHURCH  8i 

Thomas  Balshall,  says  Dugdale,^  Warden  in  the  reign 
of  Edward  IV.,  helped  to  improve  the  church,  rebuild- 
ing the  **  fair  and  beautiful  Quire  "  entirely  at  his  own 
expense.  Dn  Ralph  Collingwood,  who  was  Dean  of 
Lichfield  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIIL,  **  pursuing  the 
pious  intent  of  the  said  Dr.  Balshall,''  provided  an 
endowment  for  four  children  who  were  to  assist  as 
choristers  in  the  daily  service.  Some  of  the  rules  for 
their  management  are  quoted  by  Dugdale  in  his 
history.^  Their  home  in  the  daytime  was  the  College, 
where  they  waited  on  the  priests  and  read  aloud  at 
mealtime  ;  they  were  forbidden  to  go  to  the  buttery  to 
draw  beer  for  themselves  or  anyone  else ;  and  after 
their  evening  lessons  they  were  conducted  to  the  **  bed- 
chamber in  the  Church,"  which  seems  to  have  been 
part  of  the  building  afterwards  used  as  a  bone-house. 
"But  it  was  not  long  after,"  said  the  historian,  "this 
College,  thus  completed,  came  to  ruin  with  the  rest" 
of  the  religious  foundations.  The  Priests'  House,  or 
College,  is  no  longer  in  existence.  It  was  granted  to 
John  Dudley,  Earl  of  Warwick,  and  afterwards  Duke 
of  Northumberland,  but  went  back  to  the  Crown  after 
his  execution  for  taking  part  with  Lady  Jane  Grey.  It 
was  afterwards  purchased  by  Mr.  John  Combe,  whom 
Shakespeare  was  supposed  to  have  lampooned.  The 
lines  preserved  by  Aubrey  were  probably  the  composi- 
tion of  Richard  Braithwaite :  "Ten  in  the  hundred  the 
Devil  allows,  but  Combe  will  have  twelve  he  swears 
and  vows " ; «  it  is  only  certain  that  they  were  fixed 
upon  "  the  usurer's  tomb"  soon  after  his  death  in  1614. 
The  College-house  passed  on  his  death  to  the  poet's 
friend,  Thomas  Combe,  to  whom  he  bequeathed  his 
sword.  It  may  still  be  of  use  to  quote  one  or  two  of 
the  early  notices  of  the  monuments  near  Shakespeare's 

'  U.S,,  692.    BalshaU  was  a  Warwickshire  man,  from  Temple  Balshall, 
or  Balsall,  about  midway  between  Warwick  and  Birmingham. 
"  Ibid.t  692-3.  •  Aubrey,  Brief  Lives,  ii.  226. 

G 


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82  STRATFORD-ON-AVON 

grave.     Leland,  writing  in  the  preceding  generation, 
had  described  Stratford  as  a  town  **  reasonable  well 
builded    of   timber,"  with    two    or  three  very  large 
streets,  besides  back  lanes.     **The  Parish  Church  is  a 
fair  large  piece  of  work,  and  standeth  at  the  south  end 
of  the  town.  .  .  .  The  Quire  of  the  Church  was  of 
late  time  re-edified  by  one  Thomas  Balshall,  Doctor  of 
Divinity  and  Guardian  of  the  College  there.     He  died 
1491,  and  lieth  in  the  north-side  of  the  Presbytery  in 
a  fair  tomb."    Dugdale^  tells  us  of  other  monuments 
in  honour  of  Mr.  John  Combe,  whose  long  list  of  town 
charities  is  duly  set  forth,  of  the  poet's  own  grave  and 
monument,  and  the  tablet  to  the  memory  of  Anne,  the 
wife  of  William  Shakespeare,  who  died  in   1623,  the 
tomb   of   Agnes    Paget,   Mistress    of   the   Guild,   of 
Thomas  Clopton  and  Eglantine  his  wife,  who  died, 
she   in    1642,   he   in   1643,   of   George   Carew,    Lord 
Clopton  and  Earl  of  Totnes,  and  his  wife  Joyce^  and 
others.     From  Mr.  Loveday's  journal  *  we  may  learn 
the  condition  of  the  church  in  1732,  long  before  the 
stone  spire  was  erected.     He  calls  it  a  very  large 
structure  in  the  form  of  a  cross,   "though  the  north 
and  south  length,  built  by  the  executors  of  H.  Clop- 
ton, is  by  no  means  equal  to  the  east  and  west." 
The  middle  aisle,   he  adds,   is  very   lofty,   and    the 
steeple  stands  almost  in  it;   it  was  a  tower  with  a 
shingled    spire,    standing   "cathedral-wise"   between 
the  middle  aisle  and  the  long  chancel.     "Fine  monu- 
ments   of   the    Cloptons    here.      Shakespear    in    the 
Chancel ;    A  stone   also   for  Susanna  his  daughter, 
widow  of  John  Hall,  gent."     "Within  the  rails,  an 
high-rais'd  tomb  for  a  Doctor  of  the  College  (as  they 
call   him)  Warden   Balshal  .  .  .  the  brass-plates  at 
top  of  the  tomb  torn  off ;  stone-work,  small  figures  on 
the  sides,  as  Christ  crucify'd, — laid  in  the  Sepulchre, 
&c.  .  .  .  The  charnel-house  here  is  full  of  sculls  and 

^  u,s.,  685-92.  ^  Ed.  for  Roxburghe  Club,  1890,  pp.  5,  6. 


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GUILD  OF  THE  HOLY  CROSS  83 

bones,  a  room  over  it.  The  stalls  still  remain  in  the 
Chancel  of  this  (once)  Collegiate-Church  ;  the  College- 
house  west  of  the  Church,  is  Sir  William  Keyt's." 


IV 

THE   GUILD   OF  THE   HOLY  CROSS:    EARLY  RULES   AND  CUSTOMS 
— RE-FOUNDATION   BY   HENRY  IV. — THE  CHAPEL 

We  now  come  to  the  story  of  the  little  benefit  society, 
known  as  the  Guild  of  the  Holy  Cross,  which  has  played 
such  an  important  part  in  connection  with  the  develop- 
ment of  the  town.  Its  origin  was  doubtless  irregular. 
The  Bishops  seem  to  have  considered  that  they  could  do 
what  they  pleased  in  their  new  borough ;  but  it  was 
decided  in  later  times  that  none  but  '^  they  of  London  " 
could  set  up  '^ fellowships"  and  fraternities  without 
licence  from  the  Crown.  This  Guild,  however,  seems 
actually  to  have  been  founded  as  early  as  the  reign  of 
King  John ;  and  the  Corporation  of  Stratford  are  in 
possession  of  hundreds  of  charters,  grants,  agreements, 
and  Papal  briefs  and  indulgences  relating  to  this 
foundation,  through  the  whole  period  between  the  reign 
of  Henry  III.  and  the  creation  of  a  new  guild  under  the 
patronage  of  Henry  IV.  Mr.  Toulmin  Smith^  has 
printed  the  rules  of  the  old  Holy  Cross  Guild,  by  which 
it  appears  the  brothers  had  to  provide  a  wax-light  to  be 
lit  before  the  Rood  and  to  be  carried,  with  eight  smaller 
ones,  at  funerals,  and  that  every  brother  and  sister  had 
to  contribute  towards  the  expenses  of  a  love-feast  at 
Easter.  To  this  feast  every  brother  and  sister  brought 
a  great  tankard,  and  all  the  tankards  were  filled  with 
ale  and  given  to  the  poor. 

Soon  after  Henry  IV.  came  to  the  throne,  a  general 
inquiry  was  instituted  as  to  evasions  of  the  mortmain 

1  Documentary  History  of  English  Guilds  (Early  English  Text  Society), 
1870,  pp.  21 1-25. 


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84  STRATFORD-ON-AVON 

laws.  There  was  an  obvious  defect  in  the  title  of  the 
Stratford  Guild,  though  Edward  IIL  had  protected  their 
estates  as  far  as  he  could  by  granting  them  a  dispensa- 
tion. But  when  the  whole  subject  was  investigated,  the 
brethren  and  sisters  could  not  show  any  regular  licence ; 
and  the  Crown  seized  upon  eight  houses  and  a  yard- 
land  in  the  fields,  given  by  one  Richard  Fille,  and 
various  other  properties ;  but  upon  an  earnest  petition, 
representing  the  antiquity  of  the  Guild  and  the  piety  of 
its  founders  and  benefactors,  the  King  allowed  a  new 
Fraternity  to  be  instituted  in  honour  of  the  Holy  Cross 
and  St.  John  the  Baptist,  with  power  to  choose  a  master 
and  proctors,  and  to  appoint  two  or  more  priests  to 
celebrate  Divine  Service,  and  to  pray  for  the  souls  of 
the  King  and  Queen  and  the  benefactors  and  brethren 
generally.  From  that  time,  according  to  Dugdale,  it 
appears  that  <<  King  Henry  the  4th  was  esteemed  the 
founder  of  the  Guild."  ^ 

Robert  de  Stratford,'  the  celebrated  parson  of  the 
town,  showed  the  same  energy  in  small  surroundings 
as  when  in  later  days  he  managed  the  University 
Chest,  and  composed  the  feuds  of  the  **  Northern  and 
Southern   Nations"   as   Chancellor   of  Oxford.     His 

^  See  Dugdale,  u.s,,  695-6.  It  is  just  possible  that  Shakespeare  may 
have  noticed  the  connection  between  Henry  IV.  and  the  Holy  Cross 
Guild.  His  allusions  to  the  King^s  intention  of  going  on  a  Crusade  are 
numerous  {e.g.  JRichard  IL,  v.  6,  47-50 ;  2  Henry  /F".,  iii.  i,  108-9,  etc). 
At  the  very  opening  of  i  Henry  IV,  (i.  i,  24-7)  the  King  declares  at 
length  his  purpose  to  make  an  expedition  to 

« those  holy  fields 
Over  whose  acres  walked  those  blessed  feet 
Which  fourteen  hundred  years  ago  were  nail'd 
For  our  advantage  on  the  bitter  cross." 
These  words  were  spoken  (1.  52)  soon  after  Holyrood  day  and  the 
battle  of  Homildon.    Shakespeare,  in  writing  the  scene,  cannot  but  have 
remembered  the  Stratford  Guild  and  its  history,  and  it  is  not  irrational 
to  imagine  that  the  reminiscence  helped  to  contribute  to  the  beauty  of 
the  lines  quoted  above. 

'  Robert  de  Stratford  became  Bishop  of  Chichester  1337-62.  He  was 
twice  Chancellor  of  England.  His  elder  brother,  the  Archbishop,  also 
filled  this  office. 


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THE  GUILD  AND  ITS  CH^EL  85 

brother,  the  Archbishop,  had  taken  the  parish  church 
in  hand.  Robert,  with  the  help  of  a  rate  for  a  short 
term,  undertook  the  paving  of  the  town.  He  obtained 
many  privileges  for  the  original  Guild,  and,  among 
other  things,  he  prevailed  on  the  Bishop  to  include  the 
brethren  in  the  Augustinian  rule,  and  to  allow  them 
the  dress  of  that  order.  ^  Leave  was  also  obtained  to 
build  a  chapel  and  almshouse ;  and  the  brotherhood, 
indeed,  was  generally  known  after  Robert  de  Stratford's 
time  as  the  Hospital  of  the  Holy  Cross.  His  chapel 
remained  unaltered  for  nearly  two  centuries.  The 
original  chancel  was  found,  however,  to  be  too  small 
for  the  needs  of  the  new  foundation.  In  or  about  the 
year  1443,  therefore,  the  existing  chancel  was  erected ; 
the  nave  was  rebuilt  by  Sir  Hugh  Clopton,  who  lived 
in  the  **  Great  House  "  opposite.  Leland  mentions  the 
building,  as  it  appeared  about  the  year  1540.  **  There 
is  a  right  goodly  Chapel,"  he  says,  *Mn  a  fair  street 
towards  the  south  end  of  the  town.  It  was  re-edified," 
he  adds,  **  by  one  Hugh  Clopton,  Mayor  of  London. 
This  Hugh  Clopton  builded  also  by  the  north  side  of 
this  Chapel  a  pretty  house  of  brick  and  timber,  wherein 
he  lived  in  his  latter  days  and  died."  The  last  remark 
is  incorrect,  as  may  be  seen  by  a  reference  to  Stow,  who 
was  much  interested  in  the  man,  as  being  the  only 
example  then  known  of  an  unmarried  Lord  Mayor. 
Sir  Hugh  Clopton,  Alderman  and  Mercer,  was  elected 
to  the  higher  ofiice  in  1491.  Stow  says  that  he  was 
**all  his  life  time  a  bachelor,"  remarking  that  there 
never  was  a  bachelor  Mayor  before.*  He  died  in  1496, 
and  was  buried  at  St.  Margaret's,  Lothbury,  with  a 
handsome  monument,  mentioned  in  the  Survey  of 
London.^  He  had  intended,  indeed,  to  spend  his  latter 
days  at  Stratford ;  but  his  mansion  there  had  been  let 
upon  a  lease  for  life  to  Dr.  Thomas  Bentley,  a  former 

^  Dugdale,  u,s,        '  See  Stow,  Survey,  ed.  Strype,  1754,  "•  261. 
»  Id.,  I  573. 


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86  STRATFORD-ON-AVON 

President  of  the  College  of  Physicians,  and  this  lease 
was  still  subsisting  at  the  time  of  Sir  Hugh  Clopton's 
death.  Leland  has  also  described  some  of  the  charities 
administered  in  his  time  by  the  Stratford  Guild. ^  There 
was  an  almshouse  in  which  ten  poor  brethren  were 
maintained.  The  report  of  the  Commissioners  who 
surveyed  the  Guild  in  1546  showed  that  these  alms- 
people  had  63s.  4d.  a  year  for  their  maintenance,  of 
which  lor.  was  to  be  spent  in  coals,  **and  besides  there 
was  £5  or  £y  given  them  of  the  good  provision  of  the 
Master  of  the  Guild."  Little  or  nothing  appears  about 
the  sisters  ;  but  we  must  suppose  from  the  inscription 
upon  Agnes  Paget's  grave  that  there  was  work  for  a 
Mistress  of  the  Guild. ^ 

V 

INTERIOR  OF  THE  GUILD  CHAPEL  —  THE  DANCE  OP  DEATH: 
SHAKESPEARE'S  PICTURES  OP  DEATH  —  DESCRIPTION  OF 
OTHER  FRESCOES 

Leland,  who  described  the  exterior  of  the  chapel, 
did  not  mention  the  interior  in  the  Itinerary  which  he 
presented  to  the  King  as  a  New  Year's  gift,  but  one 
of  his  notes,  containing  a  curious  piece  of  information, 
has  been  accidentally  preserved.  It  is  known  that 
Stow  had  many  of  Leland's  papers  in  his  possession 
during  the  preparation  of  his  Survey  of  London;  and 
Hearne,  who  edited  Leland's  Itinerary^  saw  Stow's 
own  copy  of  that  work,  with  a  marginal  note,  evidently 
derived  from  Leland's  memoranda,  written  opposite 
to  the  account  of  the  Guild  Chapel.^    The  note  was 

^  See  also  Dugdale,  u,s. 

*  The  inscription,  as  given  by  Dugxlale  {u,s,  685),  was  as  follows : — 
'*  Anno  milleno  C.  quater  LX.  quatriplato 
Unicus  eximitur  annus  Pagete  obit  Agnes 
Et  nonas  Junii,  gylde  fuit  ilia  magistra 
Annis  undents,  cuius  mansio  sit  modo  celis." 

>  See  Heame's  Leland^  ix.  185. 


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THE  GUILD  CHAPEL  87 

as  follows:  "About  the  body  of  this  Chapel  was 
curiously  painted  the  Dance  of  Death  commonly  called 
the  Dance  of  Paul's,  because  the  same  was  sometime 
there  painted  about  the  cloisters  on  the  north-west  side 
of  Paul's  Church,  pulled  down  by  the  Duke  of  Somer- 
set tempore  Edward  the  6th."  The  latter  part  of  the 
note  is  later  than  Leland's  time,  and  is  inserted  on  Stow's 
own  authority.  He  gives  a  fuller  account  of  the  matter 
in  the  Survey^^  where  he  tells  us  that  the  cloister  used 
to  go  round  a  plot  of  open  ground  called  the  Pardon 
Churchyard,  or  Pardon  Church  Haugh,  now  part  of 
a  garden  belonging  to  the  Minor  Canons  of  St.  Paul's. 
Here  Jenken  Carpenter,  Town  Clerk,  who  was  one  of 
Richard  Whittington's  executors,  had  caused  to  be  set 
up  on  large  panels  "a  picture  of  Death  leading  all 
Estates,"  with  the  speeches  of  Death  and  the  answer 
of  every  Estate,  all  "artificially  and  richly  painted"; 
and  this,  he  says,  was  called  the  Dance  of  St.  Paul's, 
or  the  "  Dance  of  Machabray."  The  verses  were 
composed  by  John  Lydgate,  the  Monk  of  Bury,  in 
imitation  of  the  quatrains  upon  the  Innocents'  Cloister 
in  the  Church  of  Notre  Dame  in  Paris,  where  paintings 
of  the  same  kind  had  existed  since  1423,  or  thereabouts, 
under  the  name  at  first  of  "La  Danse  Maratre,"  and 
afterwards  of  "  La  Danse  Macabre."  But  "  in  the  year 
1549,  on  the  loth  of  April,"  he  tells  us,  "the  said 
chapel,  by  command  of  the  Duke  of  Somerset,  was 
begun  to  be  pulled  down,  with  the  whole  cloister,  the 
Dance  of  Death,  the  tombs  and  monuments,  so  that 
nothing  thereof  was  left,  but  the  bare  plot  of  ground." 
The  "Dance  of  Death"  seems  to  have  originated 
in  a  contempt  for  the  human  race  caused  by  the  shock 
of  the  great  plagues  which  devastated  the  world.  It  is 
mentioned  in  a  poem  of  1379,  containing  the  line — 
*'Jefis  de  Macabre  la  danse  "/  and  Petrarch  had  before 
that  time  written   in    a    letter    to    Francesco    Bruni, 

^  Stow,  u,s,^  i.  640. 


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88  STRATFORDON-AVON 

*^  Imperious  Death  joins  in  a  funeral  dance,  and 
Fortune  marks  the  tune."  We  hear  of  a  painting  of 
this  kind  at  Minden  in  1383,  and  M.  Jubinal  collected 
the  history  of  many  later  examples.^  Each  country 
had  its  own  way  of  treating  the  subject.  In  France 
and  England,  the  *^  Dance"  was  usually  a  stately  pro- 
cession like  a  Polonaise^  the  Deaths  walking  in  couples 
with  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men.  Besides  the 
examples  already  mentioned,  Mr.  Douce  alluded  to 
remains  of  these  Dances  at  Salisbury  and  on  the 
rood-screen  at  Hexham,  iii  the  Archbishop's  Palace  at 
Croydon,  and  at  Wortley  Hall  in  Gloucestershire,  be- 
sides a  series  of  similar  designs  on  certain  tapestries 
long  preserved  in  the  Tower.* 

We  cannot  tell  when  the  figures  of  Death  and  his 
victims  were  erased  from  the  nave  of  the  Guild  chapel. 
They  may  have  been  destroyed  as  a  relic  of  Popery  in 
the  Protector  Somerset's  time ;  they  may  have  lasted 
till  the  year  of  Shakespeare's  birth,  and  have  been 
broken  up  when  the  chancel  was  desecrated.  An  entry 
has  been  found  among  the  Borough  records  of  a  pay- 
ment made  in  1564  ''for  defacing  images  in  the 
Chapel";  and  this  might  have  covered  the  destruction 
of  ''Paul's  Dance  "as  well  as  the  mutilation  of  the 
paintings  concerned  with  the  elevation  of  the  Cross. 

To  understand  what  the  figures  were  like,  we  should 
disregard  the  vulgar  tragi-comic  pictures  remaining  at 
Basel  or  on  the  Mill-bridge  at  Lucerne,  where  Death 
is  shown  intervening  in  the  common  affairs  of  life  after 
the  satirical  style  introduced  by  Holbein.  One  should 
rather  compare  the  carved  procession  in  the  church  at 
Fecamp  with  the  copies  of  the  paintings  in  the  Hunger- 

^  Achille  Jubinal,  Explication  de  la  Danse  des  Morts  de  la  Chaise" 
Dieu,  1 84 1. 

'  See  Douce,  Holbein  s  Dance  of  Death,  chap.  iv.  In  the  south  aisle 
of  the  choir  at  St.  Mary  Magtlalene's,  Newark>on-Trent,  is  a  sing-le 
painting  which  probably  formed  part  of  a  Dance  of  Death.  It  is  in  the 
panel  of  the  screen  of  a  small  chantry-chapel. 


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DANCE  OF  DEATH  IN  GUILD  CHAPEL    89 

ford  Chapel  at  Salisbury,  published  in  1748,  and  the 
reproductions  of  the  Danse  Macabre  in  the  Abbey  of 
La  Chaise-Dieu  in  Auvergne,  issued  by  M.  Jubinal  in 
his  monograph  of  1841,  and  by  Baron  Taylor  in  the 
Voyages  Pittoresques  dans  VAncienne  France.  The 
copy  of  the  **  Dance  of  Macaber,"  in  Dugdale's  History 
of  St.  PauPsj  was  shown  by  Mr.  Douce  to  be  only  an 
emblematic  woodcut  prefixed  to  Lydgate's  tract  of  that 
name,  printed  by  Tottel  in  1554,  as  an  appendix  to  the 
"  Bochas  on  the  falls  of  Princes."  The  work  itself  is  a 
translation  from  Boccaccio  made  at  the  instance  of 
Humphrey,  Duke  of  Gloucester;  and  the  appendix 
contains  the  verses  written  by  Lydgate  in  imitation  of 
the  French  original,  which  were  usually  set  below  the 
series  of  '^  Death  and  all  Estates,"  as  represented  in 
English  churches. 

We  have  no  evidence  that  Shakespeare  ever  saw 
these  old  designs ;  but  we  may  be  sure  that  he  was 
familiar  with  that  representation  of  a  similar  subject 
which  was  known  as  **  Holbein's  Dance."  The  ironical 
pictures  of  the  intervention  of  Death  were  commonly 
used  in  alphabets  of  initial  letters  and  in  the  woodcuts 
on  service-books  and  such  well-known  religious  works 
as  the  **  Book  of  Christian  Prayer."  But  Holbein  him- 
self had  painted  a  Dance  of  Death  in  fresco  in  a  gallery 
of  the  Palace  at  Whitehall,  which  perished  in  the 
fire  of  1697.  T^^^s  curious  fact,  said  Mr.  Douce,  was 
ascertained  from  certain  etchings  by  a  Dutch  artist 
named  Nieuhoff  Piccard,  which  were  privately  circu- 
lated in  the  Court  of  William  III.  The  book  had  the 
following  title,  engraved  in  a  border  :  Imagines  Mortis, 
or  the  Dead  Dance  of  Hans  Holbeyn^  painter  of  King 
Henry  the  VIII.  The  author  states  in  one  of  his  dedi- 
cations that  he  has  met  with  the  scarce  little  work  of 
H.  Holbein  in  wood,  which  he  himself  had  painted  as 
large  as  life  in  fresco  on  the  walls  of  Whitehall.^ 

1  Id,,  pp.  115-16,  124-6. 


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go  STRATFORD-ON-AVON 

One  would  suppose  that  the  satire  in  these  drawings 
would  be  too  simple  to  take  Shakespeare's  fancy.  His 
pictures  of  Death  are  for  the  most  part  crowded  with 
emblematic  figures  and  full  of  complex  design.  We  see 
Death  in  his  gloomy  forest,  exulting  in  the  rank  of  his 
captives,  or  pining  over  those  whom  he  has  lost : — 

''  But  thy  eternal  summer  shall  not  fade 
Nor  lose  possession  of  that  fair  thou  owest ; 
Nor  shall  Death  brag  thou  wander'st  in  his  shade, 
When  in  eternal  lines  to  time  thou  growest."  ^ 

Death  does  not  come  alone,  but  stands  plotting  with 
**  wasteful  Time,"*  or  casts  insults,  like  some  swagger- 
ing conqueror,  over  his  **dull  and  speechless  tribes."* 
Once  or  twice  the  poet  seems  to  make  some  slight 
reference  to  the  famous  Dance.  Taking  his  thirty- 
second  Sonnet,  for  example,  by  the  reference  to  the 
well-contented  day,  **  when  that  churl  Death  with  dust 
my  bones  shall  cover,"  we  are  reminded  of  Holbein's 
drawing  of  the  Counsellor :  he  stands  advising  a  rich 
client,  and  Death  crouches  in  front  holding  an  hour- 
glass and  a  sexton's  shovel.  There  was  another  picture 
of  an  Unjust  Judge,  arrested  in  his  bribery  by  the  grim 
messenger,  who  tears  his  staff  away  and  gripes  him 
by  the  throat,  and  we  think  of  the  commencement  of 
Sonnet  Ixxiv. : — 

'^  when  that  fell  arrest 
Without  all  bail  shall  carry  me  away," 

and  of  the  words  of  the  dying  Hamlet : — 

"  Had  I  but  time— as  this  fell  sergeant,  death, 
Is  strict  in  his  arrest — O,  I  could  tell  you — 
But  let  it  be."* 

The  instance  commonly  quoted  to  show  Holbein's 
influence  on  Shakespeare  seems  on  examination  to  be 

^  Sonnet  zviiL  9-12. 

•  Sonnet  xv.  11 :  **  Where  wasteful  Time  debateth  with  Decay." 

•  Sonnet  cvii.  *  HamUt,  v.  2,  346-8. 


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SHAKESPEARE'S  PICTURES  OF  DEATH    91 

of  a  very  ambiguous  kind.  "  Let's  talk  of  graves,  of 
worms  and  epitaphs/'  says  poor  King  Richard ; 

^'  Let's  choose  executors  and  talk  of  wills  ; 
And  yet  not  so,  for  what  can  we  bequeath 
Save  our  deposed  bodies  to  the  ground  ?  " 

**  For  God's  sake,  let  us  sit  upon  the  ground,"  he  breaks 
out  again,  "  And  tell  sad  stories  of  the  death  of  kings." 
They  have  met  with  death  in  many  forms,  some  slain 
in  war,  some  poisoned.  Shakjespeare  seems  to  be  think- 
ing of  plots  and  plays  yet  unborn,  of  the  ghosts  that 
may  haunt  the  usurper,  of  the  murder  of  a  sleeping  king 
in  an  orchard.  ''All  murder'd,"  moans  the  weak  and 
pining  monarch : 

"  For  within  the  hollow  crown 
That  rounds  the  mortal  temples  of  a  king 
Keeps  Death  his  court  and  there  the  antic  sits, 
Scoffing  his  state  and  grinning  at  his  pomp."^ 

The  tiny  mask  allows  the  king  whom  he  haunts  ''a 
breath,  a  little  scene."  The  monarch  struts  through  the 
comedy,  and  strikes  the  rest  with  awe,  and  kills  with 
looks,  while  the  Antic  mocks  and  jeers. 

''  Infusing  him  with  self  and  vain  conceit, 
As  if  this  flesh  which  walls  about  our  life 
Were  brass  impregnable,  and  humour'd  thus 
Comes  at  the  last  and  with  a  little  pin 
Bores  through  his  castle-wall,  and  farewell  king !  "  ^ 

^  The  phrase  reappears  in  Romeo  and  Juliet ^  i.  5,  57-9 : — 
"  What  dares  the  slave 
Come  hither,  cover'd  with  an  antic  face. 
To  fleer  and  scorn  at  our  solemnity  ?  " 
In  the  preceding  scene  (L  4,  55-6),  Mercutio's  picture  of  Queen  Mab — 
*'  In  shape  no  bigger  than  an  agate-stone 
On  the  forefinger  of  an  alderman  " — 
possibly  contains  a  kindred  idea  to  that  of  the  miniature  Death  in  a 
mask  sitting  among  the  jewels  of  the  crown.     As  Shakespeare  found  in 
the  Indian  agate,  of  whose  marvels  he  could  have  read  in  his  English 
Pliny,  Mab's  waggon-spokes,  filmy  traces,  and  collars  **of  the  moon- 
shine's watery  beams,"  so  he  shows  us  the  presence  of  Death  as  in  the 
carving  of  an  old  gem,  or  as  the  Destroyer  might  appear  in  the  miniature 
sphere  of  Fairyland.  ^  Richard  IL^  iii.  2,  145-70. 


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92  STRATFORD-ON-AVON 

The  nearest  approach  to  this  imagery  in  Holbein's 
work  is  found  in  his  drawing  of  the  Emperor,  under  the 
text,  '*  There  shalt  thou  die,  and  there  the  Chariots  of 
thy  Glory  shall  be."  Maximilian  is  sitting  on  his  throne, 
administering  justice  to  his  petitioners,  and  Death  in 
the  canopy  behind  his  seat  is  at  that  moment  twisting 
the  crown  from  his  brow ;  there  is  a  certain  humour- 
ous alacrity  about  the  workman,  which  may  remind  us 
of  Shakespeare's  picture,  though  the  ideas  of  the  mask 
and  the  figures  of  gem-like  delicacy  are  altogether 
absent. 

The  chapel  at  Stratford  contained  many  other  paint- 
ings of  various  dates.  They  are  now  almost  entirely 
obliterated,  and  the  early  series  which  formerly  covered 
the  chancel  walls  was  probably  defaced  in  Shake- 
speare's infancy.  After  being  long  concealed  and 
forgotten,  they  came  to  light  again  when  the  church 
was  restored  in  1804.  The  frescoes  in  the  choir  were 
destroyed  in  the  removal  of  the  plaster,  and  those  in 
the  nave  were  covered  up  again,  being  much  decayed 
by  damp ;  but  Mr.  Fisher  succeeded  in  making 
accurate  copies  of  all  that  were  left ;  and  these  copies 
are  carefully  reproduced  as  coloured  prints  in  his 
Antiquities  of  Warwickshire^  after  appearing  in  a 
separate  volume.  They  are  well  described  in  Neil's 
Home  of  Shakespeare^  and  in  Charles  Knight's  bio- 
graphy of  the  poet;  and  one  of  the  best  accounts  of 
their  discovery  is  to  be  found  in  a  Guide  published  by 
Mr.  Merridew  of  Coventry,  from  which  the  following 
extract  is  taken.  *'The  walls  were  formerly  orna- 
mented with  a  series  of  ancient,  allegorical,  historical, 
and  legendary  paintings  in  fresco^  which  were  dis- 
covered during  the  reparation  of  the  Chapel  in  the 
summer  of  1804 ;  and  upon  carefully  scraping  off  the 
whitewash  and  paint  with  which  they  were  covered, 
many  parts  were  found  to  be  nearly  in  a  perfect  state. 
The  most  ancient  were  those  in  the  Chancel,  which 


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FRESCOES   IN  THE  GUILD  CHAPEL     93 

were  apparently  coaeval  with  this  part  of  the  Chapel. 
Of  these,  many  parts,  especially  the  Crosses,  had  been 
evidently  mutilated  by  some  sharp  instrument  through 
the  ill-directed  zeal  of  our  early  Reformers.  The 
ravages  of  time  had  also  so  much  contributed  to  in- 
jure them  that  the  plaster  upon  which  they  were  painted 
was  necessarily  taken  down  before  the  repairs  could  be 
completed ;  so  that  those  which  were  in  the  Chancel, 
with  a  small  exception,  are  now  destroyed ;  the  rest, 
in  the  Nave  and  what  is  now  a  small  Ante-Chapel  at 
the  West  end,  being  painted  on  the  stone  itself,  still 
remain,  though  again  covered  over." 

Taking  the  chancel  first,  as  containing  the  oldest 
series  of  frescoes,  we  find  that  the  side-walls  were 
decorated  with  scenes  from  the  Gospel  of  Nicodemus 
and  the  Golden  Legend,  relating  to  the  Invention  of 
the  Cross,  celebrated  on  the  3rd  of  May,  and  the 
Exaltation,  to  which  the  14th  of  September,  or  Holy- 
rood  Day,  was  consecrated.  Over  the  Vicar's  door 
was  a  spirited  design  of  dragons,  and  near  it  a  record 
of  the  old  legend  of  the  Host  being  insulted  in  a 
'  synagogue.^  The  side  devoted  to  the  Invention  of  the 
Cross  displayed  the  tree  of  life  and  showed  how  it  was 
preserved  for  long  ages  near  Jerusalem  ;  the  Queen  of 
Sheba,  a  popular  figure  in  Guild-processions,  has  come 
with  all  her  train  to  admire  it,  and  King  Solomon 
appears  in  his  glory.  Next  in  order  came  the  dream 
of  St.  Helena,  the  mother  of  Constantine ;  and  we 
may  remember  that  she  was  specially  venerated  in  this 
country  as  being  a  British  Princess,  the  daughter  of 
King  Coel  of  Colchester,  as  the  legend  ran,  and  the 
patroness  of  some  of  the  holy  wells  in  Craven  at  which 
the  peasantry  had  paid  rustic  sacrifices.  The  anti- 
quarians used  to  fight  hard  for  her  insular  descent  in 

^  The  same  subject  occurs  in  the  interesting  series  of  medieval  frescoes, 
illustrating'  the  history  of  the  Blessed  Sacrament,  at  Friskney  Church, 
between  Boston  and  Wainfleet,  Lincolnshire. 


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94  STRATFORD-ON-AVON 

order  to  maintain  the  dignity  of  the  British  Church. 
Camden,  for  instance,  says  in  writing  of  Constantius 
Chlorus,  that  he  *'took  to  wife  Helena,  daughter  of 
Coelus  or  Coelius,  a  British  prince,  on  whom  he  begat 
that  noble  Constantine  the  Great,  in  Britain.  For  so, 
together  with  that  great  historiographer  Baronius,  the 
common  opinion  of  all  other  writers  with  one  consent 
beareth  witness :  unless  it  be  one  or  two  Greek  authors 
of  later  time  and  those  dissenting  one  from  the  other, 
and  a  right  learned  man  grounding  upon  a  corrupt 
place  of  lul.  Firmicus."^  Gibbon  took  the  trouble  to 
investigate  the  story,  and  showed  how  Mr.  Carte 
"transports  the  kingdom  of  Coil,  the  imaginary  father 
of  Helena,  from  Essex  to  the  Wall  of  Antoninus."^ 
It  should  be  remembered  that  the  Helen  of  the  Welsh 
traditions,  who  made  the  Roman  roads  "from  castle  to 
castle  in  Britain,"  belongs  to  a  totally  different  legend. 
The  frescoes  were  continued  in  a  picture  of  the 
Raising  of  the  Cross,  which  some  confused  with  the 
later  feast  of  the  Exaltation.  Constantine  the  Great 
makes  his  public  entry  into  Jerusalem  ;  he  is  welcomed 
by  a  choir  of  angels,  and  the  occasion  is  marked  by  a 
miracle  of  healing.  On  the  opposite  wall  were  shown 
the  loss  and  recovery  of  the  holy  relics,  and  the  first 
Festival  of  the  Exaltation  as  instituted  by  the  Emperor 
Heraclius.  The  artist  has  followed  the  story  in  the 
Golden  Legend.  When  Chosroes  the  Persian  carried 
away  the  Cross,  it  had  seemed  incredible  that  he  should 
ever  yield  to  the  power  of  Rome ;  but  the  Emperor, 
through  a  fortunate  alliance  with  the  Turks,  won  a 
victory  that  ranked  with  the  highest  feats  of  antiquity ; 

^  Camden,  Britannia,  tr.  Holland,  1610,  p.  74. 

'  Gibbon,  Decline  and  Fall,  etc.,  chap,  xiv.,  note.  His  reference  is  to 
Carte's  "ponderous  History  of  Engfland,"  vol.  i.  p.  147.  The  industry 
of  Gibbon  destroyed  the  legend  of  "Coel,  duke  of  Kaercolvin,  or 
Colchester "  (Geoffrey  of  Monmouth,  lib,  5,  cap,  6) ;  but  St  Helena's 
statue  forms  the  very  conspicuous  apex  to  the  tower  of  the  new  town- 
hall  at  Colchester,  completed  in  1901. 


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FRESCOES  IN  THE  GUILD  CHAPEL     95 

and  his  triumphal  return  and  pious  pilgrimage  to 
Jerusalem  were  regarded  as  more  important  than  all 
the  conquests  of  Alexander  the  Great.  The  frescoes 
showed  the  details  of  the  war  with  the  heathen,  the 
rout  of  Chosroes,  and  the  return  of  Heraclius  ''in  his 
great  pride,"  as  well  as  the  origin  of  the  Church's  feast, 
which  had  a  special  significance  at  Stratford  on  account 
of  the  great  Holyrood  Fair. 

The  paintings  in  the  nave  were  of  a  somewhat  later 
date,  having  been  executed  towards  the  end  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  when  Clopton  restored  the  fabric. 
Above  the  chancel  arch  was  a  huge  picture  of  the 
Day  of  Judgment,  in  the  style  of  Orcagna's  terrible 
painting  in  the  Campo  Santo  at  Pisa.  On  the  right 
side,  to  the  spectator's  left,  one  saw  the  trumpeter, 
a  choir  of  angels,  and  the  Saints  passing  into  the 
heavenly  mansions;  there  were  satirical  figures  of  a 
Pope  and  a  Bishop,  and  others  were  shown  as  saved 
by  wearing  the  robe  of  St.  Francis.*  On  the  other 
side  was  exhibited  the  doom  of  the  wicked,  the  Deadly 
Sins  with  their  victims,  a  legion  of  fiends,  and  the 
traditionary  form  of  the  Mouth  of  the  Pit. 

The  wall  at  the  west  end  was  covered  by  four  pic- 
tures. On  the  one  hand  was  seen  the  Murder  of 
Becket,  as  mentioned  above  ;  Tracy  and  Fitz-Urse 
were  hacking  at  his  head,  Hugh  de  Moreville  swung 
a  double-handed  sword,  and  Richard  Brito,  with  a 
distorted  face,  was  dragging  at  a  broad,  ponderous 
blade.  Beneath  was  seen  an  allegorical  design  of  the 
soul  ascending  from  a  tomb.  The  limbs  were  covered 
with  a  pink  and  white  plumage^  and  the  figure  wore 
a  scarlet  Phrygian  cap.  All  round  this  design  were 
inscribed  stanzas  of  the  poem  called  ''Earth  upon 
Earth  "  :— 

''  Earth  goeth  upon  earth  as  glistening  gold, 
Yet  shall  Earth  unto  earth  rather  than  he  wold." 

*  Cf.  Dante,  Inferno^  xvi.  106-8. 

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96  STRATFORD-ON-AVON 

For  a  variation  of  the  familiar  words  we  may  quote 
the  epitaph  on  Florens  Caldwell  and  his  first  wife,  set 
up  about  1590  in  the  Church  of  St.  Martin's,  Ludgate  : — 

*^  Earth  goes  to  earth  as  mold  to  mold, 
Earth  treads  on  earth  glittering  in  gold, 
Earth  as  to  earth  return  nere  should. 
Earth  shall  to  earth  goe  ere  he  would. 

-^  Earth  upon  earth  consider  may. 
Earth  goes  to  earth  naked  away. 
Earth  though  on  earth  be  stout  and  gay, 
Earth  shall  from  earth  passe  poore  away."^ 

There  is  a  certain  literary  interest  about  these  lines 
owing  to  Shakespeare  having  used  similar  metaphors 
in  the  Sonnets,  as  in  the  seventy-fourth,  where  the  fell 
sergeant  makes  his  arrest — 

**  The  earth  can  have  but  earth  which  is  his  due  "  ; 

or,  as  in  Sonnet  cxlvi.,  where  the  soul  is  rebuked  for 
painting  her  outward  walls  so  costly  gay — 

**  Poor  soul,  the  centre  of  my  sinful  earth. 
Fooled  by  these  rebel  powers  that  thee  array." 

The  wall  on  the  other  side  of  the  doorway  contained 
a  picture  of  St.  George  and  the  Dragon.  The  Prin- 
cess of  Egypt  was  there,  with  her  little  white  *' com- 
forter dog  " ;  the  hero's  horse  was  barbed  in  steel,  and 
had  transfixed  the  monster's  neck  with  a  thrust  from 
the  frontlet-spike.  Beneath  this  again  was  another 
mystical  design,  of  Babylon,  and  the  woman  clothed 
with  the  sun,  and  the  messengers  with  sharp  sickles 
making  ready  for  the  harvest.  In  the  niches  on  the 
south  wall  were  the  figures  of  various  Saints,  almost 
destroyed  by  time ;  but  it  is  thought  that  one  of  them, 
from  some  remaining  letters  of  the  name,  and  from  its 
special  emblems,  was  intended  to  represent  St.  Mod- 
wenna,  a  British  saint  who  lived  in  the  ninth  century, 

*  Stow,  ed.  Strype,  u.s,,  bk.  3,  p.  176. 


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THE  GRAMMAR  SCHOOL  97 

and  whose  memory  seems  to  have  been  preserved  on 
two  festivals,  the  one  beginning  on  July  5th  and  the 
other  held  on  September  9th. 


VI 

THE  GRAMMAR  SCHOOL — THE  GUILDHALL:  PERFORMANCES  OP 
PLAYS  THEREIN — THE  SCHOOLROOMS — THE  NEW  CORPORA- 
TION  (1553) 

In  the  return  of  chantries  and  fraternities  made  in 
15461  King  Henry  IV.  alone  is  mentioned  as  the  founder 
and  patron  of  the  Guildi  and  its  connection  with  the 
numerous  local  charities  was  evidently  regarded  as 
accidental.  The  chapel  itself  would  have  been  de- 
stroyed, as  dedicated  to  a  superstitious  use,  if  the  Royal 
Commissioners  had  not  reported  that  it  was  of  value 
for  the  great  quietness  and  comfort  of  parishioners ; 
''and  in  time  of  sickness,  as  the  plague  and  such-like 
diseases  doth  chance  within  the  said  town,  then  all 
such  infective  persons,  with  many  other  impotent  and 
poor  people,  doth  to  the  said  chapel  resort  for  their 
daily  service."  Leland  has  left  us  a  brief  description 
of  the  whole  charity  as  it  existed  not  long  before  this 
date.  ''  There  is  a  grammar-school  on  the  south  side 
of  this  Chapel,  of  the  foundation  of  one  Jolepe  (/.^. 
Jolyflfe),  Master  of  Arts,  born  in  Stratford,  where- 
about he  had  some  patrimony;  and  that  he  gave  to 
this  school.  There  is  also  an  alms-house  of  ten  poor 
folks  at  the  south  side  of  the  Chapel  of  the  Trinity, 
maintained  by  a  Fraternity  of  the  Holy  Cross."  The 
founder's  name  is  spelt  **Jolif"  in  Stow's  transcript. 
He  is  better  known  as  Thomas  Jolyflfe,  a  member  of 
the  Guild,  who  by  his  will  in  February,  1482,  gave 
certain  lands  in  Stratford  and  Dodwell  to  the  brethren 
on  trusts  **  for  finding  a  priest  fit  and  able  in  knowledge 
to  teach  grammar  freely  to  all  scholars  coming  to  him, 

H 


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98  STRATFORD-ON-AVON 

taking  nothing  for  their  teaching."  It  seems  to  have 
been  treated  as  a  Free  School  in  the  proper  sense  of 
the  word,  the  teacher  being  free  to  teach  grammar, 
without  dependence  upon  the  leave  of  the  Ordinary ; 
and  the  founder^s  liberal  endowment  made  it  possible 
to  secure  an  income  for  the  master  by  deed,  the  children 
being  taught  gratuitously,  or  **  freely,"  as  the  phrase 
ran  in  common  parlance.  When  Somerset's  Commis- 
sioners paid  their  visit  they  found  that  one  of  the  five 
priests  was  the  **  school-master  of  grammar"  ;  '*  upon 
the  premises  is  one  Free  School,  and  one  William 
Dalam,  schoolmaster  there,  hath  yearly  for  teaching 
£io  by  patent."  A  marginal  note  in  the  Report  shows 
that  the  school  was  thought  to  be  well  conducted,  and 
was  therefore  excepted  from  confiscation.  The  alms- 
houses at  that  time  maintained  twenty-four  inmates ; 
and  the  number  was  not  altered  when  the  trusts  on  the 
property  were  transferred  to  the  new  corporation.  The 
old  house  by  the  chapel,  where  the  brethren  held  the 
Easter  Feasts  and  the  five  priests  had  their  chambers, 
was  turned  into  a  town-hall,  or  a  *' guildhall,"  in  the 
wide  sense  of  the  term ;  it  ceased  to  be  the  home  of 
the  religious  Guild,  and  was  used  thenceforth  as  if  it 
belonged  to  a  borough  where  the  public  afifairs  had 
been  managed  by  a  Merchant-guild.  The  house  has 
often  been  altered,  both  inside  and  out ;  but  it  has  not 
lost  its  identity  with  the  building  described  by  Leland, 
and  it  may  even  claim  to  be  the  actual  home  of  Robert 
de  Stratford's  original  foundation.  In  the  time  of 
Edward  VI.  there  was  a  large  hall  on  the  ground-floor, 
which  was  the  only  place  for  public  deliberations  until 
a  new  town-hall  was  built  in  1633.  ^^  this  hall 
theatrical  performances  took  place  when  some  noble- 
man's **cryof  players"  came  on  tour.  It  will  be  re- 
membered that  the  strolling  actors  were  liable  to  be 
whipped  as  vagrants,  unless  they  had  some  nobleman's 
licence  to    perform    interludes   in    his   service,   even 


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PLAYS   IN  THE  GUILDHALL  99 

before  the  punishment  was  rendered  more  savage 
by  the  Act  of  39  Elizabeth  against  fencers,  bear- 
wards,  common  players,  and  minstrels,  not  having 
an  authority  under  some  great  person's  hand  and  seal 
of  arms.  When  the  plague  burst  out  in  London,  or 
stage-plays  were  for  some  other  reason  inhibited,  the 
City  tragedians  set  forth  in  little  bands  to  make  what 
they  could  in  moot-halls,  inn-yards,  and  barns.  They 
got  little  enough  for  their  pains,  if  the  municipal 
records  are  correct.  Mr.  Halliwell-Phillipps  showed 
that  the  Lord  Chamberlain's  players,  among  whom 
Shakespeare  was  enrolled,  paid  visits  to  Bath  and 
Bristol  in  1597,  and  received  as  much  as  yys,  at  a  time 
in  one  fee.^  But  the  extracts  from  the  Municipal 
Records  of  Bath,  lately  printed  under  the  authority  of 
the  Town  Council,  show  that  much  smaller  amounts 
were  occasionally  accepted,  leave  being  given  in  that 
case  to  make  a  collection  from  the  benches  or  stalls. 
Payments  of  this  kind  were  made  by  the  Council  to 
the  *^Bearwardens  of  the  Queen,"  and  those  of  Lord 
Warwick  and  Lord  Dudley,  and  to  Her  Majesty's 
and  Lord  Warwick's  Tumblers.  Lord  Worcester's 
players  received  half-a-crown  in  1577 ;  but  Lord 
Leicester's  company  were  paid  a  fee  of  i^r.  in  the 
following  season.  Mr.  Charles  E.  Davis,  in  his  work 
on  the  Mineral  Baths  of  Bathy  quotes  the  Chamber 
Roll  of  expenses  for  1567:  ^' Given  to  the  Earl  of 
Bath's  players,  7 J.  4^." ;  and  five  or  six  years  later, 
**To  my  Lord  of  Worcester's  players,  dr.  2rf. :  for 
frieze  to  make  the  musicians'  coats,  iSj-.  9^?.  :  to  my 
Lord  of  Sussex  his  players,  4^.  2rf."  We  have  the 
pictures  of  these  little  travelling  bands  in  Hamlet 
(ii.  2  ;  iii.  2)  and  The  Taming  of  the  Shrew  (Induction, 
sc.  i).  Four  or  five  of  them  share  the  waggon  that 
carries  their  humble  properties :  there  is  the  old  man 

*   Visits  of  Shakespeare's  Company  of  Actors  to  the  Provincial  Cities 
and  Towns  of  England  {iSSy). 


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lOO  STRATFORD-ON-AVON 

with  a  bearded  **  valanced  "  face,  and  the  boy  who 
plays  her  ladyship's  parts,  and  the  robustious  man  in 
a  periwig.  They  are  engaged,  as  they  go,  to  act  at 
the  country-houses,  or  are  announced  by  the  town- 
criers  to  act  in  public  on  market-days.  The  Stratford 
records  contain  entries  of  several  performances  during 
Shakespeare's  childhood  and  youth.  The  first  is  under 
the  year  1569,  when  his  father  was  High  Bailiff.  The 
Chamberlain's  company  and  Lord  Worcester's  players 
were  both  at  Stratford  in  that  year,  and  there  is  a 
note  that  Lord  Worcester's  men  were  well  bestowed. 
**Good  my  Lord,"  said  Hamlet,  **will  you  see  the 
players  well  bestowed?  Do  you  hear,  let  them  be 
well  used."^ 

They  were  treated  so  kindly,  indeed,  in  the  case 
before  us,  that  they  returned  in  the  following  year. 
Lord  Leicester's  men,  in  the  same  way,  played  in  1573 
**and  received  a  gratuity,"  and  paid  another  visit  four 
years  afterwards.  In  1576,  Lord  Warwick's  troupe 
appeared ;  and  within  the  next  few  seasons  the  Cor- 
poration allowed  performances  by  the  companies  of 
Lord  Strange  and  Lady  Essex  and  the  ^'dramatic 
servants  "  of  the  Earl  of  Derby.  In  the  year  1587  there 
seems  to  have  been  no  less  than  six  companies  in  the 
town. 

Above  the  hall  was  a  room  used  for  council-meetings 
and  as  a  place  for  storing  documents;  and  here  Mr. 
Fisher  found  that  vast  mass  of  records  relating  to  the 
older  and  later  Guilds,  of  which  he  published  copies  and 
abstracts  in  his  book  upon  the  Guild  Chapel.  Next  to 
this  chamber  were  the  schoolrooms,  approached  until 
comparatively  recent  times  by  a  tiled  staircase  from  out- 
side, opening  into  the  yard  where  the  clock  was  once 
set  up,  which  in  the  last  days  of  the  Guild  one  Oliver 
Baker  used  to  keep  in  order  for  a  yearly  fee.  The  Latin 
School  is  shown,  with  a  ceiling  crossed  by  Tudor  beams 

'  Hamlet,  ii.  2,  546-8. 


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THE   LATIN  SCHOOL  loi 

having  carved  bosses  at  their  juncture  in  the  middle. 
The  high  timber  roof  lately  opened  above  the  Latin 
School  was  found  to  be  ornamented  with  a  pair  of 
curious  paintings,  having  reference  to  the  ending  of 
the  Wars  of  the  Roses.  There  are  two  of  the  symbolical 
flowersy  set  side  by  side ;  the  red  flower  shows  a  white 
heart,  and  the  pale  rose  of  York  a  red  heart.  The 
metaphor  of  a  change  of  hearts  was  a  favourite  with  the 
Amorettists  and  even  with  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  and  with 
Shakespeare  himself.  "  My  true  love  hath  my  heart," 
sang  fair  Charita  to  the  Arcadian  swain, 

''and  I  have  his, 
By  just  exchange  .  .  . 
He  loves  my  heart,  for  once  it  was  his  own : 
I  cherish  his,  because  in  me  it  bides.  "^ 

Or  again,  let  us  look  at  the  way  of  touching  the  subject 
in  Richard  II.  and  the  twenty-second  Sonnet.  '*  Thus 
give  I  mine,"  says  Richard,  ''and  thus  take  I  thy 
heart."     "  Give  me  mine  own  again,"  sobs  the  Queen, 

"  'twere  no  good  part, 
To  take  on  me  to  keep  and  kill  thy  heart."  * 

Modern  opinion  is  on  the  side  of  Elia,  who  despised  the 
''  bestuck  and  bleeding  heart,"  as  an  anatomical  symbol 
of  affection  ;  the  midriff,  he  thought,  would  have  been 
as  suitable;*  or  we  might  choose  that  liver-vein  of 
Biron  which  makes  flesh  into  a  deity  and  a  ^' green 
goose  a  goddess."*  The  best  illustration  is  Shake- 
speare's own  picture  of  the  hearts  exchanged  like  babies 
in  long  clothes.  '*The  beauty  that  doth  cover  thee," 
he  sings, 

' '  Is  but  the  seemly  raiment  of  my  heart, 
Which  in  thy  breast  doth  live,  as  thine  in  me.  .  .  . 

*  Arcadia,  lib.  3  (loth  ed.,  1655,  PP-  357-®)* 
«  Richard IL,  v.  i,  96-8. 

*  Essays  of  Elia,  "Valentine's  Day." 

*  Lovers  Labours  Lost,  iv.  3,  74-6. 


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I02  STRATFORD-ON-AVON 

O  therefore,  Love,  be  of  thyself  so  wary 
As  I,  not  for  myself,  but  for  thee  will ; 
Bearing  thy  heart,  which  I  will  keep  so  chary 
As  tender  nurse  her  babe  from  faring  ill."  ^ 

With  reference  to  the  place  where  the  school  was 
originally  kept,  we  ought  to  notice  another  entry  in  the 
Corporation  Book,  under  the  date  of  the  i8th  of  Febru- 
^^Yf  1594-5  '  **  At  this  Hall  it  was  agreed  by  the  BailifF 
and  the  greater  part  of  the  company  now  present  that 
there  shall  be  no  school  kept  in  the  Chapel  from  this 
time  forth."  The  Bath  records  furnish  us  with  a  similar 
instance,  the  church  of  St.  Mary  by  the  North-gate 
having  been  used  for  divine  service  till  1588,  but  after- 
wards transferred  to  secular  purposes,  **  the  Tower  used 
as  a  prison,  and  the  Nave  for  the  Free  Grammar- 
school."  We  must  suppose  that  Shakespeare  was  sent 
to  the  Free  School  at  Stratford,  as  his  parents  were 
unlearned  persons,  and  there  was  no  other  public  educa- 
tion available.^ 

Under  these  circumstances,  it  becomes  interesting  to 
consider  whether  the  chapel  was  used  for  school  pur- 
poses in  Shakespeare's  time,  and  if  so,  whether  there 
is  any  allusion  to  the  subject  in  his  works.  It  has 
been  reasonably  suggested  that  there  may  have  been 
some  temporary  necessity  for  the  practice,  while  the 
rooms  above  the  Guildhall  were  being  repaired  or 
altered,  and  that  this  may  perhaps  have  happened  on 

^  Sonnet  xxli. 

^  References  to  Lilly's  Grammar,  as  used  in  such  schools,  are  to  be 
found  in  Titus  Andronicus,  iv.  2,  22-3,  where  Chiron,  hearing*  Demetrius 
read  the  lines  from  **  Integer  vitas,"  says : — 

'*  O,  'tis  a  verse  in  Horace  ;  I  know  it  well : 
I  read  it  in  the  grammar  long  ago." 
See  also  the  amusing  catechism  of  the  little  scholar  in  Merry  Wives  of 
Windsor,  iv.  i.  Two  phrases  are  borrowed  by  Holofemes  (Love's  Labour's 
Lost,  V.  i)  from  Erasmus's  Latin  and  English  dialogues,  composed  for 
schoolboys;  viz.  **Priscian  a  little  scratched"  (IL  31-2)  and  '*I  smell 
false  Latin  "  (1.  83).  Erasmus's  phrases  are  "  Diminuit  Prisciani  caput " 
and  *'  Barbariem  olet." 


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THE  CHARTER  OF  1668  103 

several  distinct  occasions.  Mr.  Neil,  indeed,  has  gone 
so  far  as  to  suggest  in  his  Home  of  Shakespeare  that 
the  poet  may  have  seen  Mr.  Aspinall  the  vicar,  or 
Mr.  Thomas  Jenkins  the  schoolmaster,  teaching  the 
grammar  or  sentences  in  Malvolio's  costume :  ''strange, 
stout,  in  yellow  stockings,  and  cross-gartered."  *' And 
cross-gartered?"  *'Most  villainously;  like  a  pedant 
that  keeps  a  school  i'  the  church  .  .  .  You  have  not 
seen  such  a  thing  as  'tis.  I  can  hardly  forbear  hurling 
things  at  him."i 

We  need  not  examine  minutely  the  transfer  of  pro- 
perty to  the  new  Corporation.  They  got  the  Guild 
estate,  including  the  lands  left  for  the  maintenance  of 
the  school,  and  the  College  estate  carrying  with  it 
the  Rectory  of  Stratford  and  the  seven  hamlets,  the 
great  tithes  and  a  huge  tithe-barn  in  Chapel  Lane,  and 
''altarages  and  oblations"  and  other  ecclesiastical 
perquisites.  It  may,  however,  be  useful  to  notice  that 
there  are  several  certificates  among  the  Exchequer 
Records  which  describe  the  property  in  detail ;  two  of 
these  are  returns  to  Special  Commissions  in  the  nine- 
teenth year  of  Elizabeth,  and  relate  to  property  at 
Luddington,  Greenborough,  Hardwick,  and  elsewhere, 
part  of  the  possessions  of  the  Stratford  Guild;  and 
there  are  others  made  in  the  seventh  or  eighth  years  of 
James  I.,  relating  to  the  tithes  and  tithe-barn  and  to 
lands  at  Luddington  and  elsewhere  which  had  formerly 
belonged  to  the  College.  It  should  be  observed  that 
the  governing  body  established  by  Edward  VI.,  about 
a  ibrtnight  before  his  death,  was  not  headed  by  a 
Mayor  as  in  ordinary  cases.  It  was  not  till  the  re- 
newal of  the  charter  in  1674  ^^^  Stratford  had  full 
local  self-government  under  its  own  Mayor  and  Cor- 
poration. The  Corporation  as  at  first  established  was 
headed  by  the  Bailiff,  who  was  still  in  theory  a  servant 
of  the  lord  of  the  borough,  and  was  in  fact  responsible 

*  Twelfth  Nighty  iii.  2,  79-87 ;  see  Neil,  Home  of  Shakespeare^  p.  34. 


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I04  STRATFORD-ON-AVON 

for  the  collection  of  quit-rents  and  maintenance  of 
seignorial  privileges.  The  lordship  belonged  to  John 
Dudley,  Duke  of  Northumberland,  when  the  charter 
was  first  granted  in  1553,  but  was  forfeited  to  the 
Crown  on  his  attainder  a  few  weeks  afterwards. 
Queen  Mary  gave  up  her  rights  to  the  Hospital  of  the 
Savoy,  which  had  been  suppressed  at  the  end  of  the 
late  reign.  This  Hospital,  says  Stow,  was  again  new 
founded  and  endowed  by  Queen  Mary;  and  whereas 
the  beds,  bedding,  and  furniture  had  been  given  to  the 
Bridewell  workhouse,  "the  Court  Ladies,"  says  the 
chronicler,  "and  Maids  of  Honour,  in  imitation  of  the 
Queen's  charity,  stored  the  Hospital  anew  with  sufficient 
beds,  bedding,  and  other  furniture."  ^  It  was  not  long, 
however,  before  the  lordship  of  the  borough  was  vested 
once  more  in  the  Crown ;  so  that,  when  John  Shake- 
speare was  chosen  as  High  BailiflF  in  1568-9,  he  be- 
came not  only  a  local  official,  but  also  a  servant  of  the 
Queen.  Without  an  explanation  of  the  BailiflPs  posi- 
tion, it  would  have  been  difficult  to  understand  why 
Camden  and  Dethick,  when  granting  the  coatof-arms 
in  1599,  should  have  referred  to  the  pattern  of  the 
arms  assigned  to  him  at  Stratford  "whilest  he  was 
her  Majestie's  officer  and  baylefe  of  that  towne."' 

*  Stow,  u,s.fU  236. 

'  See  grant  printed  in  HalUwell-Phillipps,  u,s.,  ii.  60-1. 


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SNITTERFIELD,  WILMCOTE,  AND  THE 
MANOR  OF  ROWINGTON 


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SNITTERFIELD,  WILMCOTE,  AND  THE 
MANOR  OF  ROWINGTON 


I 

JOHN  SHAKESPEARE  was  the  son  of  a  yeoman 
living  at  Snitterfield,  a  village  lying  a  little  to 
the  north-east  of  Stratford,  not  far  from  Wilmcote.^ 
The  parish  appears  to  have  belonged  to  the  famous 
Turquil  the  Saxon,  whose  earldom  and  lands  were 
bestowed  by  William  Rufus  on  Henry  de  Newburgh, 
Earl  of  Warwick.  His  son,  Earl  Roger,  who  died  in 
the  reign  of  King  Stephen,  is  said  to  have  given  a 
fourth  part  of  all  the  arable  lands  and  a  right  of  feed- 
ing swine  in  the  woods  to  the  Collegiate  Church  of 
Warwick,  The  rest  of  the  estate  came  down  to  one 
William  Cummin,  or  Commin,  who  was  described  as 
Lord  of  Snitterfield  in  the  time  of  King  Henry  H. 
His  successor,  Walter  Commin,  gave  some  of  the 
land  to  the  monastery  of  Bordesley.  Dugdale  traces 
the  descent  of  the  property,  through  an  heiress  of 
the  Commins,  to  John  de  Cantilupe,  who  had  a  seat 
here  described  as  '*one  knight's  fee,"  of  which  the 
Earl  of  Warwick  was  the  feudal  lord.  John  de 
Cantilupe,  however,  had,  as  vassal,  a  complete  title  to 

I  See  Dugdale,  Ant  War,,  ed.  Thomas,  sub  "Snitfield,"  ii.  661-4. 

107 


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io8  SNITTERFIELD 

the  estate,  allowing  for  what  had  been  given  away  to 
the  church  and  monastery.  The  village  became  almost 
equal  in  dignity  to  a  little  town  ;  for  John  de  Cantilupe 
is  said  to  have  procured  a  charter  for  a  Wednesday 
market  and  a  yearly  fair,  commencing  July  the  15th, 
on  the  eve,  day,  and  morrow  of  the  feast  of  St.  Kenelm, 
the  martyred  King  of  Mercia.  In  the  seventeenth  year 
of  Edward  II.,  one  Thomas  West,  who  had  married 
the  heiress  of  Cantilupe,  obtained  another  charter 
changing  the  market  to  Tuesday  and  ^'enlarging  the 
fair  five  days  more  after  St.  Kenelm."  The  estate 
afterwards  passed  under  an  exchange  to  William 
Beauchamp,  Lord  Abergavenny,  and  descended 
to  his  son  Richard,  Baron  Abergavenny  and  Earl 
of  Worcester,  About  the  year  1490  it  belonged  to 
Edward  Plantagenet,  Earl  of  Warwick,  who  probably 
derived  his  title  under  an  entail  through  his  grand- 
mother, Anne  Beauchamp,  Countess  of  Warwick.  He 
was  beheaded  in  1499  for  high  treason,  and  on  his 
attainder  this  estate,  among  a  number  of  others,  known 
as  *' Warwick's  Lands,"  became  vested  in  King  Henry 
VII.  The  property  remained  in  the  Crown,  subject  to 
various  gifts,  exchanges,  and  other  transactions,  until 
nearly  the  end  of  the  next  reign.  Henry  VIII.  granted 
the  manor  of  Snitterfield  to  Mr.  Richard  Morrison, 
a  great  dealer  in  abbey-lands  and  confiscated  estates ; 
and  among  the  records  of  the  Court  of  Augmentations 
we  find  a  request,  dated  June  15th,  1545,  for  leave  to 
exchange  for  other  lands  the  manor  of  Snitterfield,  late 
of  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  which  had  been  appointed  to 
Morrison  by  the  King.  The  request  being  granted, 
the  estate  was  conveyed  by  Morrison  to  Mr.  John  Hales 
of  Coventry,  Clerk  of  the  Hanaper,  a  man  of  great 
wealth,  who  is  chiefly  remembered  as  the  generous 
founder  of  the  Free  School  at  Coventry.  He  died  on 
the  5th  of  January,  1572,  in  London,  and  was  buried  at 
the  Church  of  St.  Peter  the  Poor,  in  Broadstreet  Ward, 


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SHAKESPEARES  OF  SNITTERFIELD     109 

near  Gresham  House,  where  his  learning  and  piety 
were  commemorated  **on  a  faire  ancient  plate  in  the 
Wall  North  the  Quire.  "^ 

Nothing  is  known  at  present  as  to  the  date  when  the 
Shakespeares  established  themselves  at  Snitterfield ; 
but  it  may  be  worth  observing  that  a  certain  Roger 
Shakespeare  was  one  of  the  monks  of  Bordesley  at  the 
time  when  their  monastery  was  suppressed ;  and  we 
have  already  noticed  the  statement  that  the  monks  had 
lands  in  this  parish.  This  Roger  Shakespeare  must 
have  been  a  person  of  some  importance,  since  it  appears 
that  he  was  granted,  by  way  of  compensation,  an 
annuity  of  '^a  hundred  shillings  for  his  life."  It  is 
clear  that  the  best  chance  of  ascertaining  the  lands  given 
to  Shakespeare's  ancestor  by  Hehry  VII.,  to  which  the 
Heralds  referred  in  their  grant  of  arms,  lies  in  an  ex- 
amination of  such  of  the  records  of  **  Warwick's  Lands  " 
as  relate  to  the  manor  of  Snitterfield. 

Mr.  Hunter  made  diligent  inquiries  about  all  the 
Warwickshire  families  using  the  surname  of  Shake- 
speare, or  other  names  substantially  the  same,  though 
there  may  have  been  variations  in  the  spelling.  His 
instances  are  very  numerous ;  but  we  may  sum  them  up 
by  saying  that  he  regarded  Coventry  as  the  home  of  the 
race,  the  family  making  offshoots  into  South  Warwick- 
shire and  the  adjacent  parts  of  Gloucestershire  and 
Worcestershire.^  The  few  examples  from  London, 
Derby,  and  Mansfield  might  be  disregarded,  in  his 
opinion,  as  far  as  respects  the  principal  argument.  His 
attention  was  not  turned  to  Snitterfield ;  but  he  selects 
three  branches  of  the  stock  with  which,  and  with  which 
alone,  as  he  thought,  the  poet's  ancestor  might  have 
been  connected.     These  were,  first,  the  Shakespeares 

*  Stow*s  Survey,  ed.  Strype,  bk.  2,  p.  113. 

■  HalUwell-Phillipps,  Outlines^  ii.  252,  gives  a  long  list  of  Warwickshire 
towns  aixi  villages,  in  whose  records  the  name  of  Shakespeare  occurs 
between  the  fifteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries. 


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no  SNITTERFIELD 

of  Warwick,  a  series  of  persons  living  in  that  town 
from  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  to  the  twenty- 
second  year  of  James  I.      The  head  of  the  family  was 
always  named  Thomas :  there  was  a  Thomas  Shake- 
speare,  gentleman,   who  was   Bailiff  of  the  town  of 
Warwick  in  1614 ;   and  another  Thomas  Shakespeare, 
a  shoemaker  in  the  same  place,  is  believed  to  have  been 
the  father  of  William  Shakespeare,  who  was  drowned 
in  the  Avon  in  1579,  and  of  the  John  Shakespeare  who 
followed  the  shoemaking  trade  at  Stratford.     This  last 
Thomas  Shakespeare  made  his  will  in  1577,  by  which 
it  appeared  that  he  held  copyhold  lands  in  the  manor  of 
Balsall  in  Warwickshire.   Here  it  is  important  to  observe 
that  the  Shakespeares  of  Warwick  appear  to  have  been 
related  to  the  Shakespeares  of  Wroxall ;  at  any  rate, 
John   Shakespeare  of  Wroxall,   by  his  will  in  1574, 
selected  ^^  his  cousin  Laurence  Shakespeare  of  Balshall  " 
to  be  his  executor.     We  may  for  the  present  disregard 
the  Shakespeares  of  Rowington  ;  and  we  are  left  with 
the    Shakespeares  of  Wroxall,   from  whom,    in   Mr. 
Hunter's   opinion,   the  poet  himself  was   descended. 
He  was  able  indeed  to  bring  forward  very  little  in 
support  of  his  theory,  except  that  there  was  a  well- 
known  Richard  Shakespeare  of  Wroxall,  who  might 
be  the  same  person  as  Richard  Shakespeare  of  Snitter- 
field.i 

We  must  now  consider  what  is  known  about  the  stock 
selected  by  Mr.  Hunter  as  "the  progenitors  of  the 
Shakespeares  of  Stratford."  WroxalP  is  a  village  in 
Warwickshire  formerly  belonging  to  a  priory  of  Bene- 
dictine nuns,  whose  estate  in  this  place  was  granted  to 
Sir  Robert  Burgoine,  when  the  monasteries  were 
suppressed.  There  were  curious  legends  about  the 
foundation  of  this  nunnery.  It  was  said  that  the  whole 
place  had  belonged  to  one  Richard,  a  Norman,  who 

*  Hunter,  New  Illustratums  of  the  Life^  etc^  of  Shakespeare^  1845, 
i.  10-13.  *  Dugrdale,  «.*.,  ii.  645-7,  649-Sa 


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WROXALL  AND  THE  SHAKESPEARES     in 

was  vassal  to  Henry,  Earl  of  Warwick,  soon  after  the 
Conquest.  His  son,  Hugh  Fitzrichard,  the  lord  of  the 
manor,  being  "a  person  of  great  stature,"  joined  the 
first  Crusade ;  who,  having  been  taken  prisoner  in  the 
Holy  Land,  '*so  continued  in  great  hardship  there  for 
the  space  of  seven  years  "  ;  but,  at  length,  by  praying  to 
St.  Leonard,  to  whom  the  church  was  dedicated,  was 
taken  up  with  his  chains  on  him  and  set  down  in  a 
wood  in  this  his  lordship  of  Wroxall ;  where  when  he 
found  himself,  he  remembered  St.  Leonard's  injunction 
given  him  in  two  apparitions  while  he  was  in  prison, 
that  he  should  build  a  monastery  of  St.  Benet's  Order, 
and  accordingly  made  directions  where  to  build  it,  and, 
having  erected  it,  made  two  of  his  daughters  nuns  in 
it.  Whatever  might  be  the  origin  of  the  legend,  it 
appears  that  some  person  of  that  name  gave  the  nuns 
**  the  whole  manor  with  a  quantity  of  lands  and  woods," 
and  that  many  other  benefactions  of  the  same  kind  were 
added  **  by  persons  of  quality  and  of  inferior  condition." 
The  court-rolls  of  the  manor  of  Wroxall  do  not  throw 
much  light  upon  the  matter.  There  is  an  entry  for  the 
year  1508,  near  the  close  of  the  reign  of  Henry  VIL, 
relating  to  a  manorial  court  held  by  Isabella  Shake- 
spere,  prioress,  and  lady  of  the  manor :  **  To  this  court 
came  John  Shakespere,  and  took  of  the  said  lady  a 
messuage  with  three  crofts  and  a  grove  in  Cross-field 
at  Wroxhall,  to  hold  the  same  to  the  said  John  and 
Ellen  his  wife,  and  Antony  their  son,  according  to  the 
custom  of  the  manor,  at  a  rent  of  17J.  2^.,  and  a  heriot 
on  death  or  withdrawal,  and  for  a  fine  upon  entry  he 
gave  two  capons,  and  was  admitted,  and  did  fealty." 
Under  the  year  1531  we  find  entries  showing  that  John 
Shakespere  had  died,  and  that  his  widow,  then  called 
Ellen  Baker,  and  her  son  Antony  Shakespeare  sur- 
rendered the  property  just  above  described  to  the  use 
of  John  Rabon,  who  had  become  the  purchaser.  At 
the  same  court  it  was  presented  that  Alice  Love  had 


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112  SNITTERFIELD 

surrendered  out  of  court  a  property  consisting  of  five 
crofts  at  Wroxall,  for  which  a  black  cow  had  been 
seized  for  the  lady  as  a  heriot,  and  that  now  in  court 
came  one  William  Shakespere  and  Agnes  his  wif^  and 
took  the  same  five  crofts  for  a  customary  estate  at  a 
rent  of  lor,,  with  a  heriot,  and  fine  for  entry,  and  so 
forth.  The  name  of  Richard  Shakespere  occurs  in  the 
list  of  jurymen  at  this  court,  and  also  at  the  court  of 
1532.  It  appears  by  the  minister's  accounts,  preserved 
in  the  Augmentation  Office,  and  by  the  Valor  Ecclesu 
astictis  of  15341  that  this  Richard  Shakespeare  was 
bailiff  to  the  nuns  at  a  salary  of  /^.  a  year,  and  that 
he  held  a  copyhold  cottage,  besides  certain  leasehold 
lands,  in  their  manor  of  Wroxall.  Mr.  Hunter  shows 
by  extracts  from  the  Subsidy  Rolls  that  he  was  dead 
before  the  year  1546.  It  may  also  be  observed  that 
there  was  a  Guild  of  St.  Anne  in  the  college  of  priests 
at  Knowle,  near  Hampton-in-Arden,  founded  under  a 
licence  from  King  Henry  IV.,  **to  which  so  many 
persons,  and  those  many  of  them  of  quality,  were 
admitted,  that  it  maintained  by  their  benefactions 
three  priests  continually  singing."^  The  register  of 
this  Guild  for  the  period  between  1460  and  1527  shows 
that  several  of  these  gifts  had  been  made  by  the 
Shakespeares  of  Wroxall,  the  names  of  the  Lady 
prioress  Isabel,  and  of  Richard,  John,  and  William 
Shakespeare  being  specially  kept  in  remembrance. 
But,  so  far  as  the  inquiries  have  as  yet  proceeded,  it 
cannot  be  said  that  there  is  any  evidence  of  the  poet's 
ancestors  having  come  from  Wroxall. 

All  that  seems  to  be  really  known  about  Richard 
Shakespeare  of  Snitterfield  is  that  he  was  a  franklin,  or 
yeoman,  with  land  of  his  own,  with  another  farm  held 
on  lease  from  Robert  Arden  of  Wilmcote,  and  that  he 
had  two  sons  called  Henry  and  John.  Henry,  as  the 
elder  son,  succeeded  to  his  father's  land  and  remained 

*  Dugdale,  «.j.,  ii.  959-60. 


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FARMING  IN  ENGLAND  113 

in  business  as  a  farmer ;  John,  as  we  know,  preferred 
to  take  up  a  trade,  and  moved  about  the  year  1551  into 
a  shop  at  Stratford-upon-Avon. 


II 

Sir  Thomas  Overbury^  drew  an  excellent  picture  of 
an  English  yeoman  of  his  time,  who  ''says  not  to  his 
servants,  *Go  to  field,*  but  *Let  us  go';  and  with  his 
own  eye  doth  both  fatten  his  flock  and  set  forward  all 
manner  of  husbandry.  .  .  .  He  never  sits  up  late  but 
when  he  hunts  the  badger,  the  vowed  foe  of  his  lambs ; 
nor  uses  he  any  cruelty  but  when  he  hunts  the  hare ; 
nor  subtilty  but  when  he  setteth  snares  for  the  snipe  or 
pitfalls  for  the  blackbird  ;  nor  oppression  but  when,  in 
the  month  of  July,  he  goes  to  the  next  river  and  shears 
his  sheep.  He  allows  of  honest  pastime,  and  thinks 
not  the  bones  of  the  dead  anything  bruised  or  the  worse 
for  it  though  the  country  lasses  dance  in  the  church- 
yard after  evensong.  Rock  Monday,  and  the  wake  in 
summer,  Shrovings,  the  wakeful  catches  on  Christmas 
Eve,  the  hockey  or  seed-cake,  these  he  yearly  keeps, 
yet  holds  them  no  relics  of  popery.  He  is  not  so  in- 
quisitive after  news  derived  from  the  privy  closet,  when 
the  finding  an  eyry  of  hawks  in  his  own  ground,  or  the 
foaling  of  a  colt  come  of  a  good  strain,  are  tidings  more 
pleasant,  more  profitable.  .  .  .  Lastly,  to  end  him,  he 
cares  not  when  his  end  comes,  he  needs  not  fear  his 
audit,  for  his  quietus  is  in  heaven." 

Farming  at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century 
was  in  an  extremely  prosperous  condition,  wherever 
the  land  had  been  freed  from  ''  the  miseries  of  common- 
field."  If  the  farmer  was  allowed  to  adopt  a  mixed 
husbandry,  with  a  little  arable,  something  of  a  dairy, 

^  Characters;  or.  Witty  Descriptions  of  the  Properties  of  Sundry 
Persons  (1614)  in  Character  Writirigs  of  the  ijth  Century ^  ed.  Henry 
Morley,  1 891,  pp.  87-8,  under  headings  '*  A  Franklin." 

I 


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114  WILMCOTE 

and  separate  inclosures  for  cattle  and  sheep,  he  was 
able  to  get  a  profit  out  of  the  great  rise  in  prices.  The 
influx  of  the  precious  metals  from  America  had  altered 
the  prices  offered  for  hides  and  wool  in  a  surprising 
degree.  Some  saw  only  the  uncomfortable  side  of 
affairs,  and  lamented  the  terrible  prices  caused  by  the 
depreciation  of  gold  and  silver.  Strype  quotes  a  com- 
plaint of  this  kind  from  a  tract  called  The  Jemel  of  Joy. 
^^  How  swarme  they  with  aboundaunce  flockes  of  shepe, 
and  yet  when  was  wooll  ever  so  dere,  or  mutton  of  so 
great  pryce.  Oh  what  a  diversitie  is  thys  in  the  sale 
of  wolles,  a  stone  of  woll  sometime  to  be  sold  at  eight 
grots,  and  now  for  eight  shillings,  and  so  likewise  of 
the  shepe,  God  have  mercy  on  usl  "^  We  should  notice 
too  that  a  farmer  and  his  sons,  if  allowed  to  have 
'^  several "  or  separate  fields,  could  effect  a  great  saving 
under  the  head  of  labour.  Fitzherbert,  in  his  treatise 
upon  Husbandry,  reckons  up  some  of  the  charges, 
when  a  farm  lay  open  with  all  the  rest  of  the  parish : 
**  The  herdman  will  have  for  every  beast  ii.d.  a  quarter, 
or  there  about :  And  the  swineherd  will  have  for  every 
swine  i.d.  at  the  least.  Then  he  must  have  a  shepherd 
of  his  own,  or  else  he  shall  never  thrive.  Then  reckon 
meat,  drink,  and  wages  for  his  shepherd,  the  herd- 
man's  hire,  and  the  swine-herd's  hire,  these  charges 
will  double  his  rent  or  nigh  it,  except  his  farm  be  above 
xLs.  by  year.  "2  And  besides  all  this,  he  remarks  that 
an  inclosed  farm  can  be  constantly  watched,  for  a  man 
always  wandering  about  finds  what  is  amiss.  As  soon 
as  he  sees  the  defaults  he  can  note  them  in  his  table- 
book,  **and  if  he  can,  not  write,  let  him  nick  the 
defaults  upon  a  stick."' 

Holinshed  used  to  talk  to  old  men  who  remembered 
the  farmers  sleeping  on  straw  pallets,  with  a  good 

*  TJie  Jewel  of  Joyey  1553,  sig.  G,  iii.,  back. 

^  Fitzherbert,  Book  of  Husbandry,  ed.  Skeat,  1882  (English  Dialect 
Society),  §  123,  p.  77.  »  Id.,  §  141,  pp.  91-2. 


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HISTORY  OF  THE   HAMLET  115 

round  log  for  a  bolster,  using  wooden  platters  and 
spoons,  and  yet  hardly  able  to  pay  their  rent;  but,  when 
he  wrote  his  description  of  England,  a  good  farmer 
would  have  six  or  seven  years'  rent  lying  by,  to  pur- 
chase a  new  lease,  with  a  **fair  garnish  of  pewter"  on 
his  side-table  or  "cupboard,"  three  or  four  feather- 
beds,  as  many  coverlets  and  carpets  of  tapestry,  a 
silver  salt-cellar,  **a  bowl  for  wine  (if  not  an  whole 
nest),  and  a  dozen  of  spoons,  to  furnish  up  the  suit."^ 
These  statements  are  borne  out  by  what  we  are  told 
of  the  household  of  Robert  Arden.  Wilmcote,*  where 
his  homestead  and  most  of  his  lands  were  situated, 
was  a  hamlet  of  the  parish  of  Aston  Cantlow;  for 
some  purposes  of  petty  jurisdiction  it  was  a  member 
of  the  Liberty  of  Pathlow,  for  which  the  Bishops  of 
Worcester  formerly  held  courts  at  a  barrow  by  the 
roadside  beyond  Stratford.^  Most  of  the  hamlet  be- 
longed to  the  Clopton  family.  Lord  Mayor  Clopton 
having  purchased  the  manor  in  the  reign  of  Henry 
Vn.  The  church,  or  rather  the  chapel  of  ease,  was 
dedicated  to  St.  Mary  Magdalen;^  and  it  had  been 
conveyed  to  the  Stratford  Guild,  while  Thomas  Clop- 
ton was  Warden.  The  ancient  title  of  '*Wilmunde- 
cote  "  probably  indicates  the  name  of  the  thane,  serving 
a  King  of  Mercia  or  a  Bishop  of  Worcester,  who  had 
first  made  the  clearing  in  the  forest.  Shortly  before 
the  Norman  Conquest,  one  Lewin  Dodda  worked  the 
estate  with  the  help  of  two  farmers  and  a  couple  of 
slaves.  Domesday  Book  shows  that  no  alteration  was 
made  at  the  Conquest  in  the  way  of  laying  out  the 
estate.  The  new  lord  of  the  manor,  Urso  d'Habetot, 
two  farmers,  two  cottagers,  and  two  bondsmen,  held 
among  them  sixteen  "yardlands"  in  the  arable  fields, 

^  Holinshed,  '*  Description  of  England,"  part  ii.  chap.  x.  (in  Chronicles, 
voL  i.,  1577,  pp.  85-6). 
>  Dugdale,  u.s,,  ii.  838.  '  VuL  sup,,  p.  64. 

*  The  modern  church  is  dedicated  to  St.  Andrew. 


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ii6  WILMCOTE 

and  a  few  acres  of  water-meadow,  besides  woodland 
and  waste.  As  time  went  on  the  manor  became 
divided  between  the  families  of  co-heiresses :  one  part 
came  to  a  certain  Robert  de  Vale,  and  another  to 
Ralph  de  Lodington,  who  owned  two  of  the  eight 
freehold  *'yardlands"  and  five  of  the  eight  copyhold 
yardlands,  then  in  the  occupation  of  his  customary 
tenants.  Nearly  the  whole  estate  became  united  again 
in  an  heiress  who  married  Henry  de  Lisle,  from  whom 
the  Clopton  family  derived  their  title.  But,  at  the 
time  of  which  we  are  now  speaking,  Robert  Arden, 
the  father  of  Mary  Shakespeare,  was  the  owner  of  one 
of  the  freehold  portions  and  tenant  of  one  of  the  copy- 
hold portions,  besides  certain  separate  fields  and  the 
usual  rights  of  common.  The  freehold  portion  con- 
sisted of  about  thirty  acres  of  land  scattered  about  in 
little  strips  through  the  three  common  fields,  with  a 
farmhouse,  homestead,  and  other  inclosures,  with  con- 
veniences and  privileges,  known  collectively  as  Asbies 
Farm,  or  simply  as  **  Asbies."  He  was  also  the  owner 
of  lands  at  Snitterfield,  rented  by  Richard  Shake- 
speare, as  mentioned  above ;  and  Mr.  Halliwell- 
Phillipps  discovered  evidence  showing  that  he  had 
also  purchased  some  interest  in  a  property  then  called 
Warde  Barnes,  near  Wilmcote. 

Robert  Arden  was  twice  married.  By  his  first  wife 
he  appears  to  have  had  four  daughters,  of  whom  one 
married  Mr.  Edmund  Lambert  of  Barton-on-the-Heath, 
the  two  younger  children,  Alice  and  Mary,  being  un- 
married at  his  death,  as  appears  by  the  provisions  of 
his  will.  His  second  wife  was  Agnes  Hill,  a  widow,* 
formerly  Agnes  Webb,  for  whose  benefit  he  secured 
a  jointure  out  of  the  lands  at  Snitterfield. 

^  Halliwell-Phillipps,  u.s,f  ii.  36S-9,  gives  a  copy  of  her  first  husband's 
wiU.  He  was  John  HiU,  of  Bearley,  four  miles  N.N.E.  of  Stratford. 
*'  Item,  I  give  unto  Agnes,  my  wife,  the  lease  of  my  fieu-m  in  Bearley 
during  her  life,  and  after  her  decease  John,  my  son,  to  have  it." 


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ROBERT  ARDEN'S  FARM  OF  ASBIES    117 

In  the  treatise  upon  Husbandry,  to  which  reference 
has  already  been  made,  we  find  several  passages  that 
describe  the  domestic  life  on  farms  of  this  kind«  We 
confine  ourselves  here  to  the  work  which  would  usually 
fall  upon  the  farmer's  wife  and  daughters.  *'When 
thou  art  up  and  ready,  then  first  sweep  thy  house," 
says  Fitzherbert,  addressing  the  industrious  housewife, 
^^  dress  up  thy  dishboard,  and  set  all  things  in  good 
order  within  thy  house."  She  is  then  to  milk  the  cows, 
feed  the  calves,  skim  the  milk,  and  so  on,  before 
"arraying"  the  children,  and  getting  the  meals  ready 
for  the  household.^  We  may  notice  that  the  Ardens 
kept  seven  cows,  and  that  at  Robert's  death  he  had 
eight  oxen  for  the  plough,  two  bullocks,  and  four  wean- 
ing calves,  intended  "to  uphold  the  stock."*  The 
list  of  the  housewives'  duties  includes  putting  aside  the 
corn  and  malt  for  the  miller,  and  measuring  it  before 
it  goes  to  the  mill  and  after  it  returns,  and  seeing  that 
the  measures  duly  correspond,  allowing  for  the  toll, 
"or  else  the  miller  dealeth  not  truly  with  thee,  or  else 
the  corn  is  not  dry  as  it  should  be."'  Then  comes  the 
making  of  butter  and  cheese,  and  serving  of  pigs 
twice  a  day  and  the  poultry  once ;  and  when  the 
proper  time  comes,  the  housewife  must  "take  heed 
how  thy  hens,  ducks,  and  geese  do  lay,  and  to  gather 
up  their  eggs,  and  when  they  wax  broody,  to  set  them 
there  as  no  beasts,  swine,  nor  other  vermin  hurt  them. 
.  .  .  And  when  they  have  brought  forth  their  birds, 
to  see  that  they  be  well  kept  from  the  gledes,  crows, 
foulmarts,  and  other  vermin."^  About  March,  or  a 
little  before,  it  is  time  for  the  wife  to  make  her  garden, 
not  forgetting  to  keep  it  free  from  weeds,  and  to  plant 
the  flax  and  hemp ;  the  flax  and  hemp,  as  every  house- 

^  Fitzherbert,  u,s,f  §  146,  p.  95. 

*  See  Inventory  of  Robert  Arden's  goods,  1556,  in  Halliwell-Phillipps, 
M  '•>  ii*  53-4>  '  Fitzherbert,  u,s, 

*  Fitzherbert  writes  "gleyds,"  *'fullymarts,"  «.*.,  p.  96. 


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ii8  WILMCOTE 

wife  well  knew,  had  to  be  sown,  weeded,  pulled,  re- 
peeled,  watered,  washed,  dried,  beaten,  braked,  tawed, 
heckled,  spun,  wound,  wrapped,  and  woven;  ^^and 
thereof  may  they  make  sheets,  boardcloths,  towels, 
shirts,  smocks,  and  such  other  necessaries,  and  there- 
fore let  thy  distaff  be  alway  ready  for  a  pastime,  that 
thou  be  not  idle.  And  undoubted  a  woman  cannot  get 
her  living  honestly  with  spinning  on  the  distaff,  but 
it  stoppeth  a  gap,  and  must  needs  be  had."i  He  ac- 
knowledges, indeed,  that  it  might  sometimes  happen 
that  the  housewife  had  so  many  things  to  do  that  she 
could  hardly  know  where  to  begin.  She  had,  for 
instance,  to  make  coats  and  gowns  for  her  husband 
and  herself.'  It  is  convenient,  says  Fitzherbert,  for 
the  husbandman  to  have  sheep  of  his  own,  and  in  the 
instance  before  us  fifty-two  sheep  were  kept  on  the 
farm.  '*Then  may  his  wife  have  part  of  the  wool,  to 
make  her  husband  and  herself  some  clothes.  And  at 
the  least  way,  she  may  have  the  locks  of  the  sheep,  either 
to  make  clothes  or  blankets  and  coverlets,  or  both. 
And  if  she  have  no  wool  of  her  own  she  may  take 
wool  to  spin  of  clothmakers,  and  by  that  means  she 
may  have  a  convenient  living,  and  many  times  to  do 
other  works."  There  follows  a  terrible  list  of  extra 
duties.  It  is  a  wife's  occupation,  we  are  told,  to  winnow 
the  corn,  to  make  malt,  to  wash  and  wring,  to  make 
hay,  reap  corn,  *'and  in  time  of  need  to  help  her 
husband  to  fill  the  muck-wain  .  .  .  drive  the  plough,  to 
load  hay,  corn,  and  such  other,"  besides  walking  or 
riding  to  market  to  sell  '*  butter,  cheese,  milk,  eggs, 
chickens,  capons,  hens,  pigs,  geese,  and  all  manner  of 
corns." 

^  Fitzherbert,  ibid.         *  /</.,  p.  98,  with  the  two  quotations  following. 


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ROBERT    ARDEN'S  WILL  119 


Robert  Arden's  will  was  dated  the  24th  of  November, 
1556,  and  he  died  about  the  beginning  of  the  following 
month,  the  inventory  of  his  goods  **  moveable  and  un- 
moveable,"  taken  by  his  daughters  Alice  and  Mary, 
bearing  date  the  9th  of  December  in  the  same  year. 
He  left  his  soul  to  Almighty  God  and  the  Saints,  as 
mentioned  above;  and  his  body  to  be  buried  in  the 
churchyard  of  St.  John  the  Baptist  in  Aston ;  in  an- 
other part  of  the  will  he  appointed  certain  friends  to 
"over-see"  its  execution,^  The  details  acquire  a  cer- 
tain interest  from  the  lines  in  Lucrece^  which  suggest 
the  idea  that  Shakespeare  was  familiar  with  the  phras- 
ing of  his  grandfather's  will.     Thus  Lucrece  exclaims : 

**  This  brief  abridgment  of  my  will  I  make  : 
My  soul  and  body  to  the  skies  and  ground  ; 
My  resolution,  husband,  do  thou  take  ; 
Mine  honour  be  the  knife's  that  makes  my  wound.  "^ 

and  (1.  1205)  "Thou,  Collatine,  shoXt  oversee  this  will." 
The  gift  to  his  daughter  Mary  was  as  follows,  the 
spelling  being  modernised:  "Also  I  give  and  bequeath 
to  my  youngest  daughter  Mary  all  my  land  in  Wilmcote 
called  Asbies,  and  the  crop  upon  the  ground,  sown  and 
tilled  as  it  is,  and  £6.  13.  4  of  money,  to  be  paid  or  ere 
my  goods  be  divided."  It  appeared,  by  the  proceed- 
ings in  the  subsequent  Chancery  suit,  that  this  little 
estate  consisted  of  a  farmhouse  and  farm,  comprising  a 
yard-land  of  about  fifty  acres  in  the  common  fields,  with 
IFour  odd  acres  over,  and  certain  rights  of  pasture.  The 
testator  left  his  wife  the  sum  of  £6.  13.  4,  upon  con- 
dition that  she  allowed  his  daughter  to  share  the  copy- 
hold yard-land  at  Wilmcote,  to  which  the  widow  was 
entitled  during  her  life,  according  to  the  custom  of 

1  "Adam  Palmer,  Hugh  Porter  of  Snytteifylde,  and  Jhon  Skerlett" 
^  Lucrece^  IL  1 198- 1 201. 


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120  WILMCOTE 

the  manor;  and  he  continued,  ^'if  she  will  not  suffer 
my  daughter  Alice  quietly  to  occupy  half  with  her, 
then  I  will  that  my  wife  shall  have  but  £3.  6.  8,  and 
her  jointure  in  Snitterfield."  His  other  bequest  to  Alice 
Arden  ran  as  follows:  ''I  give  and  bequeath  to  my 
daughter  Alice  the  third  part  of  all  my  goods,  move- 
able and  unmoveable,  in  field  and  town,  after  my  debts 
and  legacies  be  performed,  besides  that  good  she  hath 
of  her  own  at  this  time."  There  were  gifts  of  groats 
**to  every  house  that  hath  no  team  in  the  Parish  of 
Aston,"  and  twenty  shillings  apiece  to  his  ** over-seers." 
The  residue  of  his  goods  he  left  to  his  children  other 
than  Alice,  to  be  divided  equally.  He  appointed  his 
daughters  Alice  and  Mary  to  be  his  ^'full  executors" ; 
and  the  will  was  witnessed  by  * '  Sir  William  Boughton  "^ 
the  curate,  Adam  Palmer,  John  Scarlet,  Thomas  Jenks, 
William  Pitt,  and  others. 

The  inventory^  taken  immediately  after  his  death  is 
interesting  as  showing  the  way  of  living  in  a  yeoman's 
family,  and  as  describing  the  actual  goods  in  which 
Mary  Shakespeare  had  a  share.  She  was  married  to 
John  Shakespeare  a  short  time  afterwards,  and  may  be 
supposed  to  have  taken  her  furniture  with  her  to  the 
new  house  in  Stratford.  Arden's  house  contained  a 
hall  or  parlour,  a  kitchen,  a  great  chamber,  and  pos- 
sibly other  small  rooms.  In  the  hall  were  two  dining- 
tables,  or  table-boards,  and  a  sideboard,  three  chairs, 
two  forms  with  cushions,  three  benches,  and  a  little 
table  with  shelves.  The  great  chamber  contained  the 
household  liiien,  stored  in  cofiPers,  including  seven  pairs 
of  sheets,  and  a  few  table-cloths  and  towels,  bedsteads 
and  bedding,  among  which  may  be  noticed  a  feather 
bed  with  coverlet  and  pillow,  two  mattresses,  three 
bolsters,  and  eight  ** canvasses";  and  there  were  no 
doubt  articles  of  clothing  and  necessary  use  which 
belonged  to  other   members  of  the  family.     In   the 

^  In  the  will  '*  Borton."  ^  See  p.  iiy,  note  2. 


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INVENTORY  OF  ARDEN'S  GOODS      121 

kitchen,  beside  the  usual  pots  and  pans  and  domestic 
ware,  we  may  notice  the  pair  of  cupboards,  a  churn 
and  four  miikpails,  and  a  kneading-trough.  A  hus- 
bandman, says  Fitzherbert,  ought  to  have  an  axe,  a 
hatchet,  a  hedging-bill,  a  pin-auger,  a  rest-auger,  a 
flail,  a  spade,  and  a  shovel  ;^  and  we  find  that  Robert 
Arden  had  an  axe,  bill,  two  hatchets,  an  adze,  a  mat- 
tock and  iron  crow,  a  longsaw,  a  handsaw,  and  '^four 
nagares,"  or  augers,  as  they  are  properly  called.  The 
horned  cattle  were  valued  at  ;f  24,  and  four  horses,  with 
three  colts,  at  ;^8.  The  flock  of  fifty-two  sheep  was 
worth  £t.  The  pigs  were  taken  at  nearly  3^.  apiece,* 
and  the  bees  and  poultry  together  at  a  crown.  The 
stackyard  and  barns  contained  wheat,  barley,  hay, 
peas,  oats,  and  straw,  worth  together  ;f2i.  6.  8.  The 
cart  and  plough  with  their  gear,  and  the  harrows,  stood 
at  £2.  The  wood  in  the  yard  and  the  battens  in  the 
roof  were  priced  at  305".  ;  the  value  of  the  wheat  in  the 
ground  was  taken  at  £6,  13.  4,  and  the  whole  valua- 
tion came  to  the  sum  of  £^^.  11.  10.  It  should  be 
stated,  moreover,  that  the  list  included  no  less  than 
eleven  of  the  "painted  cloths,"  which  took  the  place  of 
tapestry  in  families  of  the  middle  class,  though  they 
began  to  be  superseded  during  Shakespeare's  lifetime 
by  the  more  elegant  panels  in  water-colour.  **  For  thy 
walls,"  says  FalstafF,  "a  pretty  slight  drollery,  or  the 
story  of  the  Prodigal,  or  the  German  hunting  in  water- 
work,  is  worth  a  thousand  of  these  bed-hangings  and 
these  fly-bitten  tapestries."^  These  painted  cloths 
appear  to  have  been  rude  representations  of  classical 
or  religious  subjects,  with  explanatory  verses  below. 
**  You  are  full  of  pretty  answers,"  said  Jaques,  in  As 
You  Like  It.     **Have  you  not  been  acquainted  with 

*  Fitzherbert,  «.*.,  §5,  pp.  14-15. 

^  "ix  swyne,  prisid  at  xxvis.  viijd." 

»  2  Henry  IV,  ^  ii.  i,  156-9.  Cf.  Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  Knight  of  the 
Burning  Pestle^  iii.  5,  **What  story  is  that  painted  on  the  cloth?  the 
confutation  of  St.  Paul  ?  " 


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122  WILMCOTE 

goldsmiths'  wives,  and  conned  them  out  of  rings?" 
*'  Not  so,"  answered  Orlando,  "  but  I  answer  you  right 
painted  cloth,  from  whence  you  have  studied  your 
questions."^ 

It  is  to  be  supposed  that  the  great  chamber  in  Arden's 
house  contained  some  of  those  '^fly-bitten  tapestries." 
Agnes  Arden,  as  we  know,  continued  to  live  at  the 
farm,  and  evidently  had  a  share  of  the  furniture ;  for  in 
the  inventory  of  her  goods  made  in  1581,^  we  find  a 
mention  of  bed-steads  with  "apreeware,"  ue.  ware  or 
needle-work  of  Ypres,  standing  in  the  upper  rooms.  It 
may  be  observed  also  that  the  same  inventory  contains 
a  valuation  of  the  table-boards,  a  sideboard,  shelves, 
cushions,  forms,  and  benches,  which,  by  their  descrip- 
tion and  value,  seem  to  be  the  same  as  those  mentioned 
in  Robert  Arden's  will.  Mrs.  Arden  had  only  one  of 
the  painted  cloths ;  and  it  may  therefore  be  assumed  that 
the  rest  were  divided  between  Mary  Shakespeare  and 
her  sisters,  in  accordance  with  the  provisions  of  their 
father's  will.  This  may  account  in  some  degree  for 
Shakespeare's  constant  reference  to  objects  of  this  kind, 
as  in  Macbeth  for  instance,  where  we  hear  of  the 
''eye  of  childhood  that  fears  a  painted  devil,'"  or  as 
when  Falstaff  marched  his  ragged  regiment  to  Sutton 
Coldfield,  and  compared  them  to  "Lazarus  in  the 
painted  cloth,  where  the  glutton's  dogs  licked  his  sores.  "^ 
Other  references  to  pictures  of  this  class  may  be  found 
in  some  of  the  numerous  descriptions  of  Hercules,  and 
perhaps  in  Pistol's  garbled  allusion  to  a  classical  story 
in  the  words,  "Sir  Actaeon,  with  Ringwood  at  thy 
heels.  "^  The  most  striking  reference  is  to  be  found  in 
the  poem  of  Lucrece,  where  the  lady  looks  on  the  face 
of  despairing  Hecuba  in  the  picture  of  the  taking  of 

^  As  You  Like  It,  tit.  2,  287-93. 

^  Printed  in  Halliwell-Phillipps,  u.s.,  ii.  55. 

•  Macbeth,  ii.  2,  54-5.  *  i  Henry  IV,,  iv.  2,  27-9. 

*  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor,  ii.  i,  122. 


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THE  PAINTED  CLOTHS  AT  ASBIES    123 

Troy;^  to  a  thousand  lamentable  objects  ^'a  lifeless 
life  "  was  given  and  'Hhe  red  blood  reeked,  to  show  the 
painter's  strife  "  : — 

•"  There  might  you  see  the  labouring  pioneer 

Begrimed  with  sweat,  and  smeardd  all  with  dust ; 
And  from  the  towers  of  Troy  there  would  appear 
The  very  eyes  of  men  through  loopholes  thrust, 
Gazing  upon  the  Greeks  with  little  lust : 

Such  sweet  observance  in  this  work  was  had, 
That  one  might  see  those  far-off  eyes  look  sad."  ^ 


-  IV 

We  may  pause  here  for  a  moment  to  notice  Shake- 
speare's own  fondness  for  the  village  where  his  mother 
was  born.  There  was  some  local  tradition  that  he  used 
to  go  down  to  the  old  mill  at  Wilmcote  to  talk  with  a 
half-witted  fellow,  or  natural  fool,  who  was  employed 
there  in  some  menial  capacity.  He  might  have  been 
pleased  no  doubt  to  meet  *^a  fool  in  the  Forest" ;  but 
there  is  no  evidence  that  the  legend  was  true,®  We 
observe,  however,  that  he  goes  out  of  his  way  on  more 
than  one  occasion  to  bring  little  points  about  Wilmcote 
before  his  London  audience.  Take,  for  instance,  his 
alterations  of  the  Induction  to  The  Taming  of  the  Shrew. 
There  was  an  odd  kind  of  village  constable,  represent- 
ing the  system  of  keeping  the  peace  that  prevailed 
before  the  Norman  Conquest,  with  titles  that  varied  in 
different  parts  of  the  country.  In  Kent  and  Essex  he 
was  called  the  Borsholder,  which  seems  to  be  derived 
from  ^^borrows-elder" ;  and  in  one  of  the  rural  bor- 
rows or  tithings  there  was  a  staCF  with  an  iron  ring 
called  **the  dumb  Borsholder,"  appearing  in  court 
by  the  help  of  the  village  blacksmith,  whose  duty  it 

1  Lucrea^  U.  1566-1442.  >  Ibid.,  XL  1380-6. 

'  Halliwell-Phillipps,  M.5.,  i.  233.  For  evidence  see  illustrative  note,  fV^., 
ii.  308. 


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124  WILMCOTE 

was  to  lift  the  staff  in  the  air.  In  many  parts  he  was 
known  as  the  Headborough,  and  elsewhere  as  the 
Tithing-man :  and  we  may  remember  how  poor  Tom 
in  King  Lear  W2LS  whipped  ''from  tithing  to  tithing/' 
and  put  in  the  stocks  by  these  rural  officers.^  It  appeared 
by  a  trial  in  the  Exchequer,  about  the  middle  of  the 
last  century,  that  the  duties  of  the  Tithing-man  at  Dray- 
cot,  in  Wiltshire,  were  divided  between  himself  and  his 
dog.  The  holder  of  a  certain  farm  had  to  undertake  the 
office  and  attend  the  court  with  his  trusty  companion : 
''and  when  he  is  called,  and  is  asked  how  he  appears, 
he  answers  '  My  dog  and  I  appears,'  and  produces  the 
dog."  The  Tithing-man  of  Coombe  Keynes  in  Dorset 
came  into  the  court  of  Winfrith  Hundred,  and  paid 
threepence  with  an  incoherent  speech  beginning,  "with 
my  white  rod,  and  I  am  a  fourth  post ;  that  threepence 
makes  three."  ^  In  the  neighbourhood  of  Stratford  the 
officer  was  called  a ' '  Tharborough,  "or ' '  Third  borough, " 
which  is  evidently  a  corruption  of  "the  headborough." 
Shakespeare  seems  to  have  felt  some  amusement  at  the 
title  and  duties  of  the  office.  "I  am  his  Grace's 
Tharborough,"*  says  good  Antony  Dull,  "a  man  of 
good  repute,  carriage,  bearing,  and  estimation."^  He 
was  not  of  much  account  among  the  wits  of  Lovers 
Labour^s  Lost.  He  spoke  not  a  word,  "  nor  understood 
none,  neither,  Sir  1  "*  But  dull,  honest  Dull  was  a  great 
man  when  he  took  his  place  among  the  lads  of  the 
village  ;  "  I'll  make  one  in  a  dance,  or  so  ;  or  I  will  play 
on  the  tabor  to  the  Worthies  and  let  them  dance  the 
Hay  I "  •    Then  there  is  the  scene  between  the  drunken 

^  King  Lear ^  iit.  4,  139-41. 

^  Hutchins,  History  of  Dorset^  i.  127  :  **  On  default  of  any  one  of  these 
particulars,  the  court-leet  of  Coombe  is  forfeited."  The  remaining-  lines 
are : — 

''  God  bless  the  king-  and  the  lord  of  the  franchise. 
Our  weights  and  our  measures  are  lawful  and  true, 
Good  morrow,  Mr.  Steward,  I  have  no  more  to  say  to  you.'* 
*  Love's  Labour's  Lost,  i.  1,  185.  *  Ibid.,  271-2. 

»  Id.y  V.  I,  158.  •  Ibid.,  160-1. 


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THE  HEADBOROUGH  125 

tinker  and  fat  Marian  Hacket  at  her  ale-house  on 
Wilmcote  Heath.  She  wants  to  be  paid  for  her  glasses, 
and  she  can  only  get  monnaie  de  singe^  or  cold  scraps 
from  754^  Spanish  Tragedy.  **  I  know  my  remedy,  I 
must  go  fetch  the  third-borough,"  cries  old  Marian  ; 
"Third  or  fourth  or  fifth  borough.  Til  answer  him  by 
law :  ril  not  budge  an  inch,  boy :  let  him  come,  and 
kindly,"  says  Christopher  Sly.  ^  The  story  of  the 
beggar  transformed  had  nothing  to  do  with  Warwick- 
shire, and  is  in  fact  as  old  as  the  Arabian  Nights  or  the 
"  golden  prime  "  of  Haroun  Alraschid.  Robert  Burton 
was  a  schoolboy  at  Sutton  Coldfield,^  and  served  as 
curate  in  several  Warwickshire  parishes ;  he  was  a 
great  lover  of  the  theatre  and  loved  Shakespeare  "as 
an  elegant  poet " ;  *  but  Burton  tells  the  tinker's  story 
out  of  Ludovic  Vives  and  Heuter's  Histofy  of  Burgundy. 
Ludovic  Vives  was  well  known  in  England,  but  spent  the 
latter  part  of  his  life  as  a  Professor  of  the  Belles  Lettres 
at  Bruges ;  and  he  may  have  located  the  story  in  his 
adopted  country,  just  as  Shakespeare  in  the  following 
generation  found  room  for  it  at  his  favourite  Wilmcote, 
The  continental  version  thus  appears  in  the  Anatomy 
of  Melancholy.^  When  ^^Philippus  Bonus,  that  Good 
Duke  of  Burgundy,"  went  to  Bruges  to  attend  the 
wedding  of  Leonora  of  Portugal,  the  wintry  weather  was 
so  bad,  as  the  chroniclers  say,  that  he  could  find  no  means 

^  Taming  of  the  Shrew,  Induction,  i,  11-15. 

'  Anat,  of  Mel,,  iu  sect.  ii.  mem.  Hi.  (ed.  Shilleto,  ii.  73):  ^^  Sutton 
CcidfUld  in  Warwickshire  (where  I  was  once  a  Grammar  Scholar)  may 
be  a  sufficient  witness,  which  stands,  as  Camden  notes,  loco  ingrato  et 
sterili,  but  in  an  excellent  air,  and  full  of  all  manner  of  pleasures."  See 
Camden,  Britannia,  tr.  Holland,  161  o,  p.  567  B,  *^ Sutton  Colfeild,  stand- 
ing* in  a  woddy  and  on  a  churlish  hard  soile,  glorieth  oi  John  Voisy 
Bishop  of  Excester  there  bom  and  bred ;  who  in  the  reigtie  of  King 
Henrie  the  Eighth,  when  this  little  town  had  lien  a  great  while  as  dead, 
raised  it  up  againe  with  buildings,  priviledges,  and  a  Grammar  schoole." 

'  Anat  of  Mel, ,  iii.  sect.  ii.  mem.  ii.  subs.  ii.  {u,s,y  iii.  79):  ''When  Venus 
ran  to  meet  her  rose-cheeked  Adonis,  as  an  elegant  Poet  of  ours  sets  her 
out." 

^  Id,,  part  ii.  sect  ii.  mem.  iv.  (u,s,,  ii.  99). 


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126  WILMCOTE 

of  amusement.  Hawking  and  hunting  were  forbidden  by 
the  snow,  and  the  Duke  was  **  tired  with  cards,  dice, 
&c.,  and  such  other  domestical  sports,  or  to  see  Ladies 
dance,"  He  would  therefore  disguise  himself  with 
certain  of  his  courtiers  and  look  for  adventures  about 
the  town.  **  It  so  fortuned,  as  he  was  walking  late  one 
night,  that  he  found  a  country-fellow  dead-drunk,  snort- 
ing on  a  bulk ;  ^  he  caused  his  followers  to  bring  him 
to  his  Palace,  and  there  stripped  him  of  his  old  clothes, 
and  attiring  him  after  the  Court  fashion,  when  he  waked, 
he  and  they  were  ready  to  attend  upon  his  Excellency, 
persuading  him  he  was  some  great  Duke.  The  poor 
fellow,  admiring  how  he  came  there,  was  served  in 
state  all  the  day  long ;  after  supper  he  saw  them 
dance,  heard  Musick,  and  the  rest  of  those  Court-like 
pleasures :  but  late  at  night,  when  he  was  well  tippled, 
and  again  fast  asleep,  they  put  on  his  old  robes,  and  so 
conveyed  him  to  the  place  where  they  first  found  him," 
etc. 

"  What's  here?  one  dead,  or  drunk?"  says  the  lord 
at  the  hedge-corner  on  Wilmcote  Heath :  * 

''  Sirs,  I  will  practise  on  this  drunken  man  ; 
What  think  you,  if  he  were  convey'd  to  bed, 
Wrapped  in  sweet  clothes,  rings  put  upon  his  lingers, 
A  most  delicious  banquet  by  his  bed, 
And  brave  attendants  near  him  when  he  wakes, 
Would  not  the  beggar  then  forget  himself?  "  * 

Then  begins  the  scene  in  the  bed-chamber.*  **  Will't 
please  your  lordship  drink  a  cup  of  sack?"  **  What 
raiment  will  your  honour  wear  to-day  ?  "  says  another, 
dressed  up  as  a  servant.  ^^1  am  Christophero  Sly-: 
call  not  me  *  honour '  nor  *  lordship.' "  We  may 
notice  Shakespeare's  fondness  for  putting  the  old  law- 

^  Shilleto  notes,  u,s,,  **  Bulk  here  is  probably  a  bench." 

'  Taming^  of  the  Shrew ^  u,s.t  L  31. 

»  Ibid.,  11.  36^1.  *  Id.,  sc.  2. 


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STORY  OF  CHRISTOPHER  SLY       127 

phrases  into  the  mouth  of  a  ruffian  like  Sly  or  Jack 
Cade. 

"Am  I  not  Christopher  Sly,  old  Sly*s  son  of  Burton- 
heath,  by  birth  a  pedler,  by  education  a  cardmaker,  by 
transmutation  a  bear-herd,  and  now  by  present  profes- 
sion a  tinker  ?  Ask  Marian  Hacket,  the  fat  ale-wife  of 
Wincot,  if  she  know  me  not :  if  she  say  I  am  not  four- 
teen pence  on  the  score  for  sheer  ale,  score  me  up  for 
the  lyingest  knave  in  Christendom."^ 

At  last  he  is  persuaded  that  he  has  been  befooled  by 
some  strange  lunacy.^ 

"  Upon  my  life  I  am  a  lord  indeed, 
And  not  a  tinker  nor  Christophero  Sly. " 

"O  how  we  joy,"  says  the  servant  with  basin  and 
napkin, 

"  to  see  your  wit  restored  I 
O  that  once  more  you  knew  but  what  you  are  I  " 

and  the  chief  player  tells  him  about  the  ale  in  stone 
jugs  and  threats  of  presentment  at  the  leet,  **  Some- 
times you  would  call  out  for  Cicely  Hacket."  **Ay, 
the  woman's  maid  of  the  house,"  returns  the  tinker. 
"  But  then,"  cries  another, 

**  Why,  sir,  you  know  no  house  nor  no  such  maid, 
Nor  no  such  men  as  you  have  reckoned  up. 
As  Stephen  Sly  and  old  John  Naps  of  Greece 
And  Peter  Turph  and  Henry  Pimpernell 
And  twenty  more  such  names  and  men  as  these 
Which  never  were  nor  no  man  ever  saw."* 

The  name  of  Stephen  Sly  was  a  reminiscence  of 
Stratford.  It  was  borne  by  a  very  respectable  towns- 
man, once  servant  to  Mr.  Combe,  and  afterwards  a 
householder  on  his  own  account.  He  took  a  promi- 
nent part  in  resisting  the  inclosure  at  Welcombe,  to 
which  Shakespeare  himself  raised  a  successful  objec- 

*  Ibid,,  18-26.  '  Ibid,,  'j^etseqq. 

»  Ihid.,  93-a 


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128  WILMCOTE 

tion.^  It  was  quite  in  accordance  with  the  poet's  habit 
to  introduce  a  real  name,  by  way  of  a  jest  reminding 
him  of  home.  '*  Naps  of  Greece  "  is  a  name  that  may 
refer  to  some  hill-farm,  where  a  **knapp,"  or  knoll, 
was  mounted  by  steps,  or  'Agrees"  ;  but  the  other  per- 
sonages appear  to  be  altogether  imaginary.  We  ought 
to  compare  the  passage  with  the  list  of  prisoners  in 
Measure  for  Measure^  headed  by  young  Master  Rash 
and  Mr.  Caper  in  his  peach-coloured  satin  : — 

**Then  we  have  young  Dizy,  and  young  Master  Deep- 
vow,  and  Master  Copperspur,  and  Master  Starvelackey 
the  rapier  and  dagger  man,  and  young  Drop-heir  that 
killed  lusty  Pudding,  and  Master  Forthlight  the  tilter, 
and  brave  Master  Shooty  the  great  traveller,  and  wild 
Half-can  that  stabbed  Pots,  and  I  think  forty  more."* 

Brave  Shooty  (Shoe-tie)  surely  must  have  been  Tom 
Coryat,  who  wrote  the  book  of  *' Crudities  hastily 
gobled  up  in  5  moneth  travells  newly  digested  in  the 
hungry  air  of  Odcombe,"  and  hung  up  his  only  pair  of 
shoes  as  a  trophy  at  Odcombe  Church  in  Somerset ; 
and  there  may  have  been  one  or  two  other  personal 
allusions  that  might  be  caught  up  by  a  London  audience. 
We  catch  another  glimpse  of  the  Wilmcote  people  in 
the  second  part  of  King  Henry  IV.  The  scene  is  laid 
at  Shallow's  house  in  Gloucestershire,  but  the  allusions 
point  to  the  neighbourhood  of  Stratford.^ 

Davy.  **  I  beseech  you,  sir,  to  countenance  William  Visor 
of  Woncot  against  Clement  Perkes  of  the  hill. 

Shal.  There  is  many  complaints,  Davy,  against  that  Visor: 
that  Visor  is  an  arrant  knave,  on  my  knowledge. 

Davy.  I  grant  your  worship  that  he  is  a  knave,  sir ;  but  yet, 
God  forbid,  sir,  but  a  knave  should  have  some  countenance 
at  his  friend's  request." 

^  Halliwell-Phaiipps,  op.  cit^  ti.  308. 
^^asure  /or  Measure,  iv.  3,  14-21.  '  2  Henry  IV, ,  v,  i,  41-9. 


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MANOR  OF  ROWINGTON  129 


The  manor  of  Rowington  has  belonged  to  the  Crown 
ever  since  the  death  of  Ambrose  Dudley,  Earl  of  War- 
wick. Queen  Elizabeth  had  entailed  the  place  upon 
her  favourite;^  but  he  died  without  issue  in  1589,  and 
so  the  entail  was  at  an  end.  The  ancient  manor  had 
been  confined  to  the  parish  of  Rowington,  which  lies 
at  some  distance  from  Stratford.^  It  was  the  pro» 
perty  of  the  Abbey  of  Reading,  to  which  house  also 
belonged  a  large  farm  at  Tiddington,  lying  south  of 
the  Avon  on  the  Banbury  road,  some  little  bits  of  land 
in  Stratford  itself,  and  an  estate  in  Leicestershire  called 
Everkeston,  which  all  passed  together  under  the  name 
of  the  manor  of  Rowington  at  the  time  when  Shake- 
speare became  a  tenant.  Lord  Coke  once  explained 
how  it  often  happened,  **in  the  time  of  the  Abbots," 
that,  for  the  sake  of  convenience,  one  court  was  held 
for  several  neighbouring  properties,  and  a  number  of 
detached  parcels  were  treated  as  being  in  one  manor, 
for  the  sake  of  simplicity  in  the  accounts.  A  survey  of 
the  manor  of  Rowington,  in  this  extended  sense  of  the 
term,  was  taken  at  the  accession  of  James  L,  and  there 
is  also  among  the  Public  Records  a  document  entitled, 
"A  Survey  of  the  Manor  of  Rowington  ...  in  the 
County  of  Warwick,  late  parcel  of  the  possessions  of 
Henrietta  Maria,  the  relict  and  late  Queen  of  Charles 
Stuart,  deceased."    We  shall  make  extracts  fPom  both 

^  See  Camden,  Britannia^  u,s,f  p.  571  A.B.:  "Ambrosef  a  most  worthy 
personag^e,  both  for  warlike  prowesse  and  sweetnesse  of  nature,  through 
the  fauour  of  Queene  Elizabeth  received  in  our  remembrance,  the  honour 
of  Earle  of  Warwicke  to  him  and  his  heires  males,  and  for  defect  of  them 
to  Robert  his  brother,  and  the  heires  males  of  his  body  lawfully  begotten. 
This  honour  Ambrose  bare  with  great  commendation,  and  died  without 
children  in  the  yeere  one  thousand  fiue  hundred  eighty  nine,  shortly  after 
his  brother  Robert  Earle  of  Leicester." 

*  Dugdale,  w.*.,  ii.  793-4.     Rowington  is  about  six  miles  N.N.W.  of 
Warwick,  on  the  main  road  to  Birmingham,   and  is  in  the  Henley 
division  of  Barlichway  Hundred. 
K 


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I30  MANOR  OF  ROWINGTON 

these  documents,  with  respect  to  the  customs  prevailing 
in  Shakespeare's  time,  and  with  respect  also  to  certain 
properties,  other  than  his  copyhold,  that  belonged  to 
various  persons  of  the  same  name. 

As  to  the  parish  of  Rowington  itself,  all  the  Abbey- 
lands  belonged  to  permanent  tenants,  either  freeholders 
by  ancient  right,  or  customary  tenants  holding  'Ho 
them  and  theirs  "  in  a  security  hardly  inferior  to  free- 
hold. They  paid  among  them  about  £^2  of  perpetual 
rent.  The  Leicestershire  tenants  paid  £6.  13s.  4^.,  and 
the  two  little  copyholds  in  the  borough  of  Stratford 
were  assessed  at  4^.  6d.  These  small  holdings  are  thus 
described  in  the  earlier  survey:  "Customary  rents  in 
Stratford,  parcel  of  the  said  manor :  Stephen  Burman 
holdeth  •  •  •  according  to  the  custom  one  messuage 
and  one  orchard,  by  estimation  half  an  acre,  and  payeth 
rent  yearly  two  shillings.  William  Shakespeare  hold- 
eth there  one  cottage  and  a  garden,  by  estimation  a 
quarter  of  an  acre,  and  payeth  rent  yearly  two  shillings 
and  sixpence."  Now  as  to  the  other  Shakespeares, 
who  seem  to  have  been  in  no  way  related  to  the  poet.^ 
Thomas  Shakespeare  of  Rowington  is  the  freeholder  of 
a  house  and  yard-land,  about  thirty-two  acres  in  all, 
and  is  also  the  customary  tenant  of  a  field,  and  the 
site  of  an  old  house  and  sixteen  acres  that  went  with 
it,  and  another  copyhold  house  and  yard-land  of  eleven 
acres.  George  Shakespeare,  his  brother,  as  it  seems, 
had  a  cottage  and  a  couple  of  acres,  worth  2^.  a  year. 
Richard  Shakespeare  had  a  messuage,  and  half  a  yard- 
land  containing  about  fourteen  acres,  for  13^.  a  year, 
and  this  seems  to  correspond  to  the  normal  kind  of 
holding,  the  house  being  thrown  in,  and  less  than  a 
shilling  an  acre  charged  for  the  arable  in  the  village 
fields.  There  was  a  John  Shakespeare  who  held  a 
cottage  and  a  quarter  of  land,  of  about  nine  acres,  who 
paid  six  and  eightpence  per  annum. 

^  See  the  long  note  in  Halliwell-Phillipps,  u,s.y  ii.  253-7. 


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LOCAL  CUSTOMS  131 

The  list  of  the  local  customs  is  full  of  curious  details. 
We  learn  that  the  words  **to  him  and  his"  gave  a  full 
and  formal  inheritance ;  that  a  widow  retained  her 
husband's  estate  for  her  life  on  paying  a  penny  for 
admission ;  that  the  rule  of  primogeniture  prevailed 
among  females  as  well  as  males;  that  the  tenants 
might  lop  and  shred  the  trees  ^*for  tinsel  and  fire- 
making";  and  that  the  custody  of  all  idiots  was  left  to 
the  discretion  of  the  steward.  There  is  a  note  in  the 
earlier  document  that  one  John  Rogers,  an  idiot,  had 
been  committed  to  a  Mr.  Blount  by  Queen  Elizabeth's 
own  letters-patent;  **but  that  Clement  Griswold  then 
governed  him  by  virtue  of  a  grant  from  the  High 
Steward  of  Rowington."  There  is  an  allusion  to  these 
beggings  for  idiots  in  the  clown's  part  in  Lome's  Labour's 
Lost  Costard  is  laughing  at  the  notion  that  three 
threes  make  nine,  which  he  vows  that  only  an  idiot 
would  believe: 

''  Not  so,  sir  ;  under  correction,  sir  ;  I  hope  it  is  not  so. 
You  cannot  beg  us,  sir,  I  can  assure  you,  sir ;  we  know 
what  we  know."^ 

Something  has  been  said  as  to  Shakespeare's  ignor- 
ance of  the  Rowington  customs  as  shown  by  the 
provisions  of  his  will.  There  seems,  however,  to  have 
been  a  very  good  reason  for  what  he  did.  In  dealing 
with  his  copyhold  cottage  and  garden  near  New  Place, 
he  gave  his  daughter  Judith  an  additional  legacy  of 
£$0  on  condition  that  she  should  give  up  all  her  estate 
and  interest  therein  to  her  elder  sister  Susanna,  But, 
by  the  Rowington  custom,  the  eldest  daughter  was  the 
heir,  in  case  there  were  no  male  issue ;  so  that  the 
condition,  it  is  said,  was  evidently  not  required ;  and 
it  is  stated  that,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  eldest  daughter 
was  accepted  and  admitted  as  heiress.  But,  from  what 
has  been  said  about  the  early  history  of  the  manor,  it 

^  Lo7fe*s  Labour^ s  Last,  v.  a,  489-90. 


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132  MANOR  OF  ROWINGTON 

is  obvious  that  there  might  well  be  doubts  whether  the 
custom  would  apply  to  the  outlying  portions,  dragged 
into  the  manor  for  the  convenience  of  the  abbots. 

Tiddington  Farm^  was  originally  part  of  the  Alveston 
estate  belonging  to  the  Bishopric  of  Worcester  before 
the  Conquest.  In  course  of  time  it  was  acquired  by 
the  Abbots  of  Reading,  and  was  annexed  to  Rowington 
in  some  informal  way ;  and  in  the  surveys  now  before 
us  it  is  treated  as  having  been  a  portion  of  their  de- 
mesne. We  shalt  take  the  description  of  the  farm 
from  the  Parliamentary  Survey  of  1649.  The  farm  is 
stated  to  be  situate  in  the  parish  of  Aston  Cantlow.' 
The  farmhouse  contained  six  rooms  below  and  five 
above  stairs ;  it  stood  with  its  outbuildings  in  about 
an  acre  of  ground,  bounded  on  one  side  by  the  common 
field  and  on  another  by  the  Lucys'  estate.  We  shall 
only  mention  those  pieces  of  land  belonging  to  the 
farm  which  are  specially  connected  with  our  subject. 
The  form  of  the  entries  will  show  both  the  situation  of 
the  lands  and  the  methods  of  agriculture  which  then 
prevailed.  There  was  a  little  pasture-field  called  Avon 
Close,  between  Mr.  Challoner's  lands  on  the  south  and 
the  river  of  Avon  on  the  north,  a  Home  Close  abutting 
on  the  open  field,  and  another  known  as  the  Crofts 
fronting  the  highway  leading  to  Banbury ;  we  find  a 
meadow  called  the  Lots,  which  we  suppose  to  have 
been  originally  a  lot-meadow  divided  among  the 
tenants,  and  "  a  parcel  of  meadow-ground  lying  in  the 
common  mead  called  Tiddington  Meadow,"  with 
various  other  entries  of  the  same  kind.  The  next 
series  of  descriptions  related  to  pastures  in  the  unin- 
closed  fields :  **  All  those  several  pastures  or  leys  lying 
in  the  common  fields  called  the  Cow-pastures,  con- 
taining 84  leys  lying  intermixed  with  the  lands  of 

^  Dugdale,  «.5.,  ii.  676-7. 

^  It  is  now  in  Alveston  parish,  where  it  is  locally  situated     Aston 
Cantlow  is  six  or  seven  miles  away  by  the  nearest  road. 


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FARM  OF  TIDDINGTON  133 

the  rest  of  the  inhabitants,  viz.  four  leys,  Thomas 
Higgens,  lying  on  the  north,  and  the  lands  of  William 
Challoner  in  the  south  .  .  .  one  ley,  William  Alcock's, 
lying  on  the  west  and  Ridges  Furlong  on  the  east. . .  one 
ley,  Mr.  Lucey,  lying  on  the  west,  and  John  Edwards 
on  the  east,*'  and  so  forth,  the  whole  of  the  eighty-four 
leys  containing  about  twenty-eight  acres.  The  next  part 
of  the  survey  relates  to  the  land  kept  for  wheat,  barley, 
oats,  and  peas:  ^'All  those  several  parcels  of  arable 
land  lying  in  a  common  field  called  the  West  Field, 
containing  120  lands  lying  intermixed  with  the  lands 
of  the  rest  of  the  inhabitants,  viz.  seven  lands,  lying 
between  those  of  William  Challoner  on  the  east  and  of 
William  Alcock  on  the  west  .  .  .  three  ridges,  W. 
Challoner,  lying  on  the  north  and  the  headland  on  the 
south  ...  six  lands,  a  furlong  lying  on  the  west  and 
the  lands  of  Thomas  Townsend  on  the  east  .  .  .  one 
headland  abutting  upon  the  lands  of  John  Edwards  on 
the  south  and  the  furlong  on  the  north  .  .  .  one  butt, 
John  Duley,  lying  on  the  east  and  Thomas  Lovel  on 
the  west,"  etc.  Next  follows  a  similar  account  of  135 
lands  in  the  ley-field,  lying  intermixed  as  in  the  former 
case,  including  "One  half-land,  William  Challoner, 
lying  on  the  east  and  Thomas  Lords  on  the  west  .  .  . 
half  a  land,  William  Hine,  lying  on  the  north  and 
John  Edwards  on  the  south  .  .  .  three  half-lands, 
William  Challoner,  on  the  south  and  William  Alcock 
on  the  north  ...  nine  small  lands  abutting  on  the 
way  leading  to  Wilborne  ^  on  the  north  and  a  furlong 
called  Hanging  Furlong  on  the  south,  fifteen  lands 
called  Connegrey's  Piece,  Mr.  Lucy,  lying  on  the  east 
and  the  Heathway  on  the  west,"  etc.,  the  whole  135 
lands  making  up  about  thirty-five  acres.  The  next  entry 
refers  to  nine  lands  in  Rowley  Piece,  and  the  next  to 
III  lands  in  the  Heath-field,  mostly  lying  near  the 
Heathway  Furlong  and  the  Cpnnegrey  Furlong,  where 

^  ue,  Wellesbourne  Mountford. 


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134  MANOR  OF  ROWINGTON 

the  lord's  **coney-gree,*'  or  rabbit-warren,  inust  have 
been  a  dangerous  neighbour  to  the  corn.*  In  New- 
bridge Field  there  were  twenty-one  and  a  half  lands, 
each  strip,  as  in  the  other  cases,  being  about  the  third 
part  of  an  acre  in  size ;  in  Crabtree  Field  were  twenty- 
nine  more  strips,  lying  intermixed  like  the  rest;  in 
the  Craston  Hades  Field,  nineteen  lands;  and  in  the 
common  field,  called  Hinde  Ridge,  twenty-eight  lands, 
intermixed  as  before. 

These  surveys  help  us  to  realise  the  condition  of  the 
country  under  the  open-field  system,  when  a  whole 
parish  was  often  laid  out  like  a  single  farm.  The  yard- 
lands  consisted  mainly  of  a  number  of  little  strips  set  in 
some  customary  order  about  the  uninclosed  field,  so 
that  each  owner  might  be  supposed  to  have  the  benefit 
of  different  qualities  in  the  soil.^  The  system  was 
absurd  from  an  agricultural  point  of  view ;  and  it  has 
been  stated  by  competent  observers  that  the  land  in 
many  places  was  better  cultivated  under  Edward  the 
Conifessor  than  in  the  reign  of  George  III.  The 
accuracy  of  this  opinion  is  confirmed  by  what  we  know 
of  some  of  the  fields  which  became  well  known  in  con- 
nection with  battles  in  the  Civil  wars.  We  hear,  for 
instance,  of  the  '*sad  roads  and  bad  husbandry"  in 
Chalgrove  field ;  as  to  Naseby  field,  we  are  told  that, 
even  in  this  century,  it  was  in  much  the  same  state  as 
on  the  day  of  the  battle.  The  lower  parts  were  covered 
with  furze,  rushes,  and  fern ;  the  field,  in  fact,  was 
almost  in  a  state  of  nature,  the  avenues  zigzagging  as 
chance  directed,  and  the  hollows  being  unfilled,  except 
with  mire.     The  Stratford  fields  extended  for  miles  in 

^  The  word  is  met  with  in  various  forms  ;  e,g.  Conygar  Hill  in  Somer- 
set, between  Dunster  and  Minehead.  The  derivation  is  Coney-Garth. 
**  In  Wiltshire,  Somersetshire,  and  other  counties  in  the  West  of  England, 
this  word,  variously  spelt  ...  is  often  met  with  as  the  name  of  a  field, 
and  sometimes  of  a  street,  as  in  the  town  of  Trowbridge "  (Wright, 
Dictionary  of  Obsolete  and  Provincial  English^  i.  336). 

*  See  the  drawing  in  Halliwell-Phillipps,  «.j.,  i.  245. 


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SHOTTERY  135 

one  open  tract  through  Old  Stratford,  Bishopton,  and 
Welcombe.  In  the  same  neighbourhood  was  Shottery 
field,  occupied  almost  entirely  by  the  several  families 
of  Hathaway.  It  will  be  remembered  that  when  Mr. 
Abraham  Sturley  of  Stratford  wrote  to  Richard  Quiney 
in  London,  on  January  24th,  1597-8,  on  the  subject  of 
the  Stratford  tithes,  he  mentioned  a  report  that  Shake- 
speare intended  to  buy  land  at  Shottery :  **  This  is  one 
special  remembrance  from  your  father's  motion.  It 
seemeth  by  him  that  our  countryman,  Mr.  Shakespeare, 
is  willing  to  disburse  some  money  upon  some  odd  yard 
land  or  other  at  Shottery  or  near  about  us ;  he  thinketh 
it  a  very  fit  pattern  to  move  him  to  deal  in  the  matter 
of  our  tithes."^ 

The  first  notices  of  Shottery  appear  in  the  records 
of  the  see  of  Worcester. ^  Between  the  years  704  and 
709,  OfFa,  King  of  Mercia,  appears  to  have  granted  to 
the  Bishop  thirty-three  **cassates,"  or  homesteads,  in 
"Scottarit,"  the  estate  being  described  as  bounded  by 
the  stream  of  the  Avon.  When  Domesday  Book  was 
compiled,  Shottery  seems  to  have  been  included  in  the 
general  description  of  Stratford ;  but  it  was  not  long 
before  it  appeared  again  as  a  separate  estate.  In  the 
reign  of  Edward  III.  it  belonged  to  the  energetic 
Robert  de  Stratford,  who  did  so  much  in  the  way  of 
paving  and  improving  the  town  where  he  was  incum- 
bent, and  by  him  it  was  entailed  on  Sir  John  Streeche 
and  Isabel  his  wife,  whose  son.  Sir  John  Streeche,  sold 
the  manor  to  the  Dean  and  Canons  of  St.  Martin-le- 
Grand.  Dugdale  tells  a  curious  story  about  the  owner- 
ship of  the  property  in  the  next  reign,  Shottery  at  that 
time  belonged  to  one  Thomas  Newnham,  a  priest  in 
the  King's  service.  This  man  was  by  birth  a  bondman 
belonging  to  the  monastery  of  Evesham,  and  every- 
thing that  he  had  could  therefore  have  been  taken  by 

^  See  copy  in  Halliwell-Phillipps,  «•*.,  ii.  57. 
*  Dugdale,  «.a,  ii.  702-3, 


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136  MANOR  OF   ROWINGTON 

his  masters,  if  it  were  not  for  his  employment  under 
the  Crown.  In  1394  the  monks  seized  the  estate,  with- 
out getting  a  royal  licence ;  the  property  was  therefore 
forfeited  to  the  Crown,  and  was  granted  by  the  King 
to  Sir  William  Arundel  **to  hold  so  long  as  it  con- 
tinued in  the  Crown  for  the  reason  aforesaid."  No 
regard,  it  appears,  was  paid  to  the  equitable  claims  of 
the  unfortunate  bondman.  The  state  of  Shottery  in 
Shakespeare's  time  may  be  conjectured  from  the  later 
description  in  the  private  Act  for  its  inclosure  in  1786. 
That  Act  recites  that  in  Shottery  were  certain  common 
fields,  meadows,  and  pastures,  called  Shottery  field, 
containing  about  1,600  acres;  this  tract  was  divided 
among  thirty-nine  and  three-quarter  yard-lands,  with  a 
few  strips  or  **odd  lands"  over.  All  these  lands,  the 
Act  proceeds,  *Mie  intermixed  and  dispersed  in  small 
parcels,  subject  to  frequent  trespass  and  much  incon- 
venience, and  in  their  present  state  are  incapable  of 
any  considerable  improvement,"  and  it  was  pointed 
out  how  much  benefit  would  result  from  dividing  them 
info  separate  portions. 


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MIDLAND  AGRICULTURE  AND 

NATURAL  HISTORY 

IN  SHAKESPEARE'S  PLAYS 


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I40  MIDLAND  AGRICULTURE 

Gilbert  Shakespeare  on  behalf  of  William  Shake- 
speare ;  but  these  may  be  later  additions,  made  when 
Shakespeare  was  able  to  pay  the  price,  amounting  to 
;^320  for  about  321  strips  of  arable,  with  rights  of 
common.  We  know  from  another  document  printed 
in  the  Outlines'^  that  in  1610  Shakespeare  had  pur- 
chased this  property,  with  an  additional  twenty  acres 
of  meadow,  and  that  he  had  paid  the  Combes  an 
additional  ;^ioo  for  confirming  the  conveyance.  In 
Lady  Barnard's  will  this  meadow  was  described  as 
"half  a  yard-land,"*  as  if  it  had  been  originally  under 
tillage.  It  appears  that  meadows  were  often  formed 
by  developing  fallow-lands  into  permanent  pasture; 
but  it  was  found  convenient  to  retain  the  old  descrip- 
tions, to  show  what  property  was  comprised  in  the 
title. 

The  Stratford  Common  Fields  were  good  examples  of 
the  Midland  husbandry.  The  Stratford  Inclosure  Act, 
1774,  shows  that  they  consisted  of  three  arable  fields, 
with  pastures  adjoining,  known  as  Stratford  field, 
Bishopton  field,  and  Welcombe  field,  in  the  hamlets 
of  Old  Stratford,  Bishopton,  and  Welcombe,  contain- 
ing altogether  about  1,600  acres.  It  appears  from 
prior  inclosure  proceedings  that  Welcombe  field  con- 
tained about  400  acres.  Shakespeare's  127  acres  are 
shown  by  a  conveyance  to  have  been  in  Stratford  field, 
partly  in  the  hamlet,  and  partly  in  the  borough.^ 

The  whole  extent  of  the  three  fields  was  estimated 
at  "fifty  yard-lands  with  some  odd  lands,"  Shakespeare's 
part  being  taken  at  "  four  yard-lands  and  a  half."  Each 
yard-land,  on  the  average,  contained  ninety  'Mands," 
each  ridge,  or  ^Mand,"  containing  about  one-third  of  an 
acre.  There  were  also  '^  small  lands,"  and  **  half- 
lands,"  and  '^head-lands."    It  should  be  remembered 

J  Ibid.,  25.  «  IbicL^  62. 

'  Jhi4Ly  17:  "Scytuate,  lying^e  and  beinge  within  the  parrishe,  feildes 
or  towne  of  Old  Stretford  aforesaid." 


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COMMON  FIELDS  141 

that  a  ^^  yard-land  "  was  a  small  holding  measured  out 
by  the  yard  or  rod,  and  distributed  in  little  strips 
about  the  fields,  so  that  each  farmer  might  have  his 
shares  of  good  and  bad  soil. 

The  field,  taken  as  the  unit,  apart  from  the  customs 
about  yard-lands,  was  laid  out  in  oblong  blocks  known 
as  ** furlongs";  these  were  divided  by  long  "balks," 
or  grassy  spaces,  used  as  lanes.  The  word  balk  was 
applied  to  the  main  tracks  leading  across  the  field,  and 
in  some  cases  to  the  little  oblong  ridges,  or  seed-beds, 
themselves.  Minsheu  gives  '^to  Balke,  or  make  a 
balke  in  earing  of  land  "  ;  ^  and  this  may  be  illustrated 
out  of  Shakespeare's  dedication  of  his  Venus  and 
Adonis.  "  But  if  the  first  heir  of  my  invention  prove 
deformed,  I  shall  be  sorry  it  had  so  noble  a  god-father, 
and  never  after  ear  so  barren  a  landy  for  fear  it  yield 
me  still  so  bad  a  harvest." 

The  tillage-lands  and  cow-pastures  were  protected  by 
banks  and  fences  called  meers ;  and  the  name  in  time 
came  to  mean  a  "marking-off"  for  any  special  purpose. 
Enobarbus  applied  it  to  Antony  in  describing  the  sea- 
fight  :— 

"When  half  to  half  the  world  opposed,  he  being 
The  meered  question.  **  • 

At  Stratford  there  was  another  kind  of  boundary 
called  "free-boards,"  as  mentioned  in  the  Stratford 
Inclosure  Act,  1774.  The  "free-board"  is  more 
usually  found  as  the  ancient  boundary  of  a  forest. 
"Frith"  meant  a  tract  of  common,*  and  the  "free- 
board "  was  a  band  of  grass-land  marking  its  extent. 
The    "free-board"    of   Stratford    field    is   shown    in 

^  Minsheu,  Ductor  in  Linguas,  1617,  p.  27. 

^  Antony  and  Cteopatra^  iii.  1 3)  9-10. 

*  *'  Frith "  meant  originally  a  wood  or  coppice  (Wright,  Diciionafy, 
u,s.f  483),  and  so  came  to  be  applied  to  any  tract  covered  with  under- 
growth. English  Dialed  Dictionary,  ii.  501 » quotes  the  Cumberland  and 
Lancashire  use  of  the  word  in  the  sense  of  "  unused  pasture-land." 


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142  MIDLAND  AGRICULTURE 

Winter's  plan  of  Stratford,  1768,  behind  the  Henley 
Street  houses.^  It  was  traversed  by  the  Guildpits 
Road,  leading  to  the  place  where  the  Bishops  held  a 
petty  manorial  court  within  their  Liberty  of  Path- 
low.  The  larger  court-leet  was  held  twice  a  year  at 
the  barrow  called  Pathlow  or  **  Pate's  grave." 

When  the  arable  lay  in  fallow  it  was  used  as  a 
common  pasture,  except  in  certain  places  where  a 
separate  right  had  been  acquiesced.  In  the  Rowing- 
ton  Survey  we  read  of  eighty-four  leys  intermixed,  and 
of  a  ley-field  of  135  "  lands,"  lately  restored  to  tillage ; 
and  we  find  another  illustration  in  Timon's  speech  to 
Mother  Earth :  "  Dry  up  thy  marrows,  vines,  and 
plough-torn  leas."^ 

The  rights  incidental  to  Shakespeare's  "yard-lands" 
comprised  privileges  on  other  persons'  fallows,  called 
**  hades,  leys,  and  tyings.*"  Little  is  known  as  to  the 
meaning  of  "hades,"  except  they  must  have  been 
rights  on  very  small  pieces  of  land,  relating  probably 
to  turning  the  plough  on  the  neighbour's  "  head-land." 
Cowell's  Interpreter  quotes  a  document  from  Orleton 
in  Herefordshire,  where  a  tenant  surrendered  two 
acres,  containing  ten  ridges,  or  seed-beds,  and  two 
hades.^  The  Rowington  Survey,  as  we  noticed  in  the 
preceding  essay,  describes  a  small  common-field  by 
the  name  of  Craston  Hades.  The  head-lands  were 
pieces  at  each  end  of  a  furrow,  where  the  plough 

^  Reproduced  in  Halliwell-PhUlipps,  «.s.,  i.  202. 

"  Timon  of  Athens^  iv.  3,  193. 

*  In  conveyance  of  May,  1602,  u.s,\  ''And  also  all  hades,  leys,  tyinges, 
proffittes,  advantages  and  commodities  whatsoever."  Cf.  Fitzherbert, 
Book  of  Husbandry^  ed.  Skeat,  1882,  §6,  p.  15:  ''The  horses  may  be 
tethered  or  tied  upon  leys,  balks,  or  hades,  where  as  oxen  may  not  be 
kept" 

^  Cowell,  A  Law  Dictionary,  etc,  1627,  s,v* ,  Hades  of  land,  New  Eng, 
Dict.i  vol.  v.,  p.  13,  gives  "Hade.  ...  A  strip  of  land  left  unploughed 
.  .  .  between  two  ploughed  portions  of  a  field."  The  sense  connecting 
it  with  the  head-lands  of  the  field  is  "perhaps  a  mistake  arising  from 
the  identification  of  hade  with  head," 


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CULTIVATION  OF  YARD-LANDS       143 

turned ;  they  were  sometimes  mere  cart-ways,  but  by 
management  they  might  be  cropped ;  as  in  the  second 
part  of  Henry  IV.  the  servant  asks  Shallow,  '*  Again, 
sir,  shall  we  sow  the  head-land  with  wheat?  Shal.  With 
red  wheat,  Davy."i  Shakespeare  also  mentions  the 
early  **  white  wheat,"  mildewed  by  the  foul  fiend. 
Flibbertigibbet.^  It  was  often  mixed  with  rye  in  a 
"blend";  and  this  was  said  to  be  "the  surest  corn 
for  growing."  But  very  little  rye  was  ever  sown  near 
Stratford,  the  soil  being  heavy  and  more  adapted  to 
wheat  and  beans.  "Some  ground,"  says  Fitzherbert, 
"is  good  for  wheat,  some  for  rye,  and  some  is  good 
for  both."  The  song  of  the  two  pages  in  -4^^  You 
Like  It^  may  be  a  true  sketch  of  one  side  of  the  "green 
corn-field,"  laid  out  in  the  "acres  of  the  rye."  The 
lover  and  his  lass  are  in  one  of  the  grassy  balks  be- 
tween the  "lands,"  chattering  about  the  furrow- weeds, 
and  the  corn-cockles,  and  wild-mustard,  and  pink 
cuckoo-flowers : — 

'*  This  carol  they  began  that  hour, 
With  a  hey  and  a  ho^  and  a  hey  nanino^ 
How  that  a  life  was  but  a  flower, 
In  the  Spring-time.  .  . 
Sweet  lovers  love  the  Spring." 

The  "rank  fumitory"*  was  the  worst  enemy  of  the 
rye.  It  appeared  in  June  or  at  the  end  of  spring  in 
a  very  wet  season.  "It  groweth  like  vetches,"  says 
the  Book  of  Husbandry  y  "  but  it  is  much  smaller,  and  it 
will  grow  as  high  as  the  corn,  and  with  the  weight 
thereof  it  puUeth  the  corn  flat  to  the  earth,  and  fretteth 
the  ears  away."^ 

Shakespeare  refers  in  The  Tempest  to  the  long  blocks, 

*  2  Henry  IV*  y\,  i,  15-17.  *  King  Lear,  iii.  4,  123. 

*  As  You  Like  It,  v.  3,  17-34. 

*  Henry  V,,  v,  2,  45.     Also  see  King  Lear,  iv.  4,  3. 

"  Fitzherbert,  u,s,,  §20,  p.  30.     He  calls  it  *'terre/'  i,e.  tares.     His 
form  of  "vetches"  is  "fytches." 


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144  MIDLAND  AGRICULTURE 

called  ^'furlongs/'  in  the  common  fields.  Gonzalo 
makes  a  whimsical  comparison  between  the  vast  tracts 
of  foam  and  a  little  waste  corner  in  the  village  field. 
*^  Now  would  I  give  a  thousand  furlongs  of  sea  for  an 
acre  of  barren  ground,  long  heath,  brown  furze,  any- 
thing. The  wills  above  be  done  !  but  I  would  fain  die 
a  dry  death."  ^  We  may  suppose  also  that  Hermione 
referred  to  the  arable  furlongs  in  the  Winter's  Tale: 

"  You  may  ride's 
With  one  soft  kiss  a  thousand  furlongs  ere 
With  spur  we  heat  an  acre."* 

The  word  "tyings"  meant  the  right  of  tethering  a 
horse,  hobbled  with  a  ^^tye"  or  chain,  so  as  to  graze 
on  the  neighbour's  herbage.  A  good  illustration  occurs 
in  Fitzherbert's  treatise  on  Husbandry,  in  a  discussion 
on  the  saying,  **Eat  within  your  tether."  **Take  thy 
horse,  and  go  tether  him  upon  thine  own  leys,  flit  him 
as  oft  as  thou  wilt,  no  man  will  say  ^  wrong  thou  dost^ ; 
but  make  thy  horse  too  long  a  tether  •  .  •  so  •  .  .  that 
it  reacheth  to  the  midst  of  another  man's  leys  or  corn  : 
now  hast  thou  given  him  too  much  liberty."' 

The  farmers  as  a  rule  enjoyed  rights  of  pastures  on 
the  corn-lands  in  fallow,  the  weeds  providing  an  abund- 
ance of  coarse  food  for  the  town-herd  or  common-flock. 
But  in  some  districts  portions  of  the  fallow  were  ex- 

^  Tempest^  i,  i,  67-70.  Cf.  Tmo  Gentlemen  of  VeronOf  t.  i,  158,  where 
the  messenger  is  safe  from  wreck,  **  being  destined  to  a  drier  death  on 
shore."  It  is  interesting  to  refer  to  Rabelais,  Pantagruelt  iv.  18:  "O 
que  troys  et  quatre  foys  heureuz  sont  ceubc  qui  plantent  chouhc!  O 
Parces,  que  ne  me  fiUastes  vous  pour  planteur  de  choulxt  O  que 
petit  est  le  nombre  de  ceulx  a  qui  lupiter  ha  telle  faueur  port^  qu'il  les 
ha  destinez  a  planter  choulx !  Car  ilz  ont  tousiours  en  terre  ung  pied, 
I'aultre  n'en  est  pas  loing."  And  tbitLy  20,  where  Panurge  continues  his 
seasick  lamentations :  *'  Pleust  la  digne  vertus  de  Dieu  qu'a  heure  presente 
ie  feusse  dedans  le  clous  de  Seville,  ou  chez  Innocent  le  pastissier,  deuant 
la  caue  paincte  a  Chinon  .  .  .  Ie  vous  donne  tout  Salmiguondinoys  et  ma 
grande  cacquerolliere,  si  par  vostre  Industrie  ie  trouue  une  foys  terre 
ferme  "  (ed.  Bibliophile  Jacob,  pp.  368,  372). 

3  Winter* s  Tale,  i.  2,  94-^.  '  Fitzherbert,  ti.f.,  §  148,  p.  loa 


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RIGHTS  OF  PASTURE  145 

empted  from  the  general  right,  and  were  kept  as 
**severals,"  or  *'sunder-lands,"  for  the  owner's  pri- 
vate use.  Shakespeare  refers  to  this  practice  in  Love's 
Labour^ s  Losty  where  Boyet  oflFers  Maria  a  kiss.  *'  Not 
so,  gentle  beast,"  she  cries ;  *'  My  lips  are  no  common, 
though  several  they  be."  "Belonging  to  whom?" 
**  To  my  fortunes  and  me."^ 

The  Masque  in  The  Tempest  contains  several  allu- 
sions to  the  ancient  methods  of  husbandry.  It  opens 
with  a  picture  of  a  lovely  island,  the  treasure-house  of 
the  Goddess  of  Plenty.*  Ceres  herself  guards  the 
rampart  of  clififs  that  shut  in  her  vines  in  cluster  on 
their  poles,  her  plough-torn  leas,  and  the  grassy  banks 
that  *' catch  flower"  in  the  spring.  The  sketch  of  the 
vines  in  their  ranks  seems  to  be  meant  as  a  sign  of 
antiquity,  indicating  that  the  scene  was  laid  as  far  back 
as  the  Roman  times.  It  was  almost  a  commonplace  in 
Shakespeare's  time  that  there  had  been  a  store  of  vines 
in  this  country,  since  their  cultivation  had  been  allowed 
by  the  Emperor  Probus.*  There  can  hardly  be  a  doubt, 
when  the  various  phrases  of  the  Masque  are  examined 
in  this  light,  that  its  island  of  Ceres  was  "  Britannia." 
The  landscape  shows  the  girls  picking  flowers  for  their 
garlands,  from  banks  and  pastures, 

'*  When  proud-pied  April  dress'd  in  all  his  trim 
Hath  put  a  spirit  of  youth  in  every  thing, 
That  heavy  Saturn  laugh*d  and  leap'd  with  him."^ 

The  ploughing  of  a  hillside  drew  the  soil  down,  till 
it  was  checked  by  terraces,  or  natural  platforms,  which 
soon  became  covered  with  coppices  and  underwood. 
This  explains  the  word  of  Ceres  as  to  her  **  bosky 
acres,"  below  the  **unshrubb'd  down,"  and  the  laugh- 

*  Love* s  Labour^ s  Lost^  ii.  i,  222-4.  ■  Tempest^  iv.  i,  60-117. 

'  See  Camden,  Britannia^  tr.  Holland,  p.  269  D.E.,  of  the  Vine,  Lord 
Sands'  house  at  Basing' :  "  The  vines . . .  which  wee  have  had  in  Britaine, 
since  Probus  the  Emperours  time,  rather  for  shade  than  fruit,"  etc. 

^  Sonnet  xcviii.  2-4. 
L 


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146  MIDLAND  AGRICULTURE 

ing  talk  of  Iris  about  lass-lorn  bachelors  in  the  shade 
of  the  broom.  The  Yorkshire  broom-groves  are  often 
twelve  feet  high,  and  a  ** grove"  is  presumed  to  con- 
sist of  underwood ;  this  was  laid  down  in  the  case  of 
Robert  Barret  against  his  mother.^  We  owe  the 
sketch  of  **the  banks  with  pioned  .  .  ,  brims"  to  a 
kindly  reminiscence  of  Spenser's  "painefuU  pyon- 
ings"  in  the  second  book  of  The  Faerie  Queene;'^  and 
the  lass-lorn  love  may  be  recognised  in  his  Shepheards 
Calender  for  January : — 

*<  I  love  thilke  lasse  (alas !  why  doe  I  love  ?) 
And  am  forlorne  (alas  !  why  am  I  lorne  ?  )  "  ' 

And  in  the  April  eclogue,  good  Hobbinol  is  asked : 

*'  Or  is  thy  Bagpype  broke,  that  soundes  so  sweete? 
Or  art  thou  of  thy  loved  lasse  forlorne  ?  "  * 

The  brims  of  the  banks  were  **  pioned,"  or  raised  by 
the  spade,  like  mounds  in  war  cast  up  by  the  labouring 
**pioners."^  The  banks  were  also  said  to  be  ^*twillM," 
a  term  which  has  caused  a  great  discussion.  It  seems 
to  be  an  allusion  to  the  diagonal  pattern  on  'twilled 
cloth,"  the  bank  being  marked  with  parallel  lines  of 
*^  binders,"  pegged  down  when  the  hedges  were 
plashed,  to  protect  quick-sets,  or  boughs  split  and 
'Maid  down,"  against  the  bite  of  cattle.  We  find  an 
illustrative  passage  in  Covel's  Diary  for  October,  1675. 
At  Malaga,  said  Dr.  Covel,  some  spread  their  twills 
on  the  bedsteads,  **but  I,  with  one  or  two  more, 
had  the  fortune  to  put  our  twills  for  coolness  into  the 
middle  of  the  floor."  ^    Theobald's  suggestion,  that  the 

*  Sir  Thos.  Hetley,  Reports  and  Casesy  1657,  p.  35:  "A  Grove 
ordinarily  is  Under-wood."  *  Faerie  Queene^  ii.  10,  stanza  63. 

'  Shepheards  Calender,  Januarie,  stanza  11. 

*  /rf.,  April,  stanza  i.  •  Hamlet^  i.  5,  163 ;  Henry  K.,  iii.  2,  92. 

*  Extracts  from  the  Diaries  of  Dr,  John  Covel j  1670-9,  ed.  J.  T. 
Bent  for  Hakluyt  Society,  1893,  p.  115.  "Twill^,"  in  the  disputed 
passage,  has  been  interpreted  without  alteration  as  '*  covered  with 
sedge."  This  view  takes  ''twill"  as  another  form  of  ''quill,"  through 
the  French  equivalent  tuyau.  See  Appendix  iii.  (pp.  180-2)  to  Mr.  Morton 
Luce's  edition  of  The  Tempest  (Methuen,  1902). 


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MASQUE   IN   THE  TEMPEST  147 

passage  referred  to  the  banks  of  a  stream,  "pseonied 
and  lilied,"  brings  Shakespeare's  Masque  down  to 
the  level  of  The  Arraignment  of  Paris;  for  in  Peele's 
sketch  of  a  brook, 

"The  watery  flowers  and  lilies  on  the  banks, 
Like  blazing  comets  burgeon  all  in  ranks."  ^ 

As  for  peonies,  one  should  remember  Gerard's  saying, 
**that  the  male  Peionie  groweth  wilde  upon  a  conie 
berrie  in  Betsome;"^  but  his  editor,  Dr.  T.  Johnson, 
added  a  note  in  1633 :  '*  I  have  been  told  that  our 
Author  himselfe  planted  that  Peionie  there,  and  after- 
wards seemed  to  finde  it  there  by  accident ;  and  I  do 
beleeve  it  was  so,  because  none  before  or  since  have 
ever  seen  or  heard  of  it  growing  wild  since  in  any  part 
of  this  Kingdome."  ^  In  quoting  the  speech  of  Iris,  we 
may  also  note  that  stoker  is  used  for  rough  hay,  kept 
to  fodder  the  sheep  in  winter.  The  lines  of  herbage 
and  frondage  are  compared  by  way  of  metaphor  to  the 
bays  of  a  roof  thatched  with  reeds  or  straw.  *'  Reed  " 
is  now  a  name  in  the  western  counties  for  wheat-straw 
made  ready  for  thatching  ;  but  in  former  times  the  com- 
mon rushes  and  reeds  were  used  for  covering  roofs, 
even  in  large  towns.  In  16 19  the  Privy  Council  ordered 
that  the  houses  ** thatched  with  reed  and  straw"  at 
Cambridge,  should  for  the  future  be  slated  or  tiled ; 
and  in  the  same  year  another  order  was  made  to  the 
same  effect  about  the  thatched  houses  in  Stratford, 
though  one  sturdy  burgess  seems  to  have  refused  to 
buy  slates  "to  save  his  neighbour's  apricot-tree." 
Shakespeare  mentions  the  reed-thatching  in  describing 
the  grief  of  Gonzalo : — 

**  His  tears  run  down  his  beard,  like  winter's  drops 
From  eaves  of  reeds. "  * 

*  Peele,  Arraignment  of  Paris^  i.  3. 

*  Gerard,  Herbal,  1597,  lib,  2,  c,  364,  p.  831. 

*  Id,y  ed.  T.  Johnson,  1633,  lib,  2,  c.  380,  p.  983. 

*  Tempest^  v.  i,  16-17. 


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148  MIDLAND  AGRICULTURE 

"  In  1614,  Mr.  William  Combe  and  his  son  John 
formed  a  project  of  inclosing  Welcombe  field,  by 
agreement  with  the  majority  of  the  proprietors.  They 
relied,  no  doubt,  upon  a  sudden  change  of  policy  in  the 
Court  of  Chancery,  under  Lord  Ellesmere,  who  in  that 
very  year  had  decreed  inclosures  of  wastes  and  com- 
monable lands  as  being  for  the  public  advantage. 
Various  instances  of  this  kind  were  collected  by  "that 
famous  lawyer,  William  Tothill,"  in  his  Transactions  of 
the  High  Court  of  Chancery ^  1649.  "The  Court,"  for 
instance,  "  compells  certain  men,  that  would  not  agree 
to  Inclosures,  to  yeild  unto  the  same,  and  binds  a 
Colledge  that  would  not  consent."^  But  after  a  few  years 
there  was  another  change,  and  inclosure  was  no  longer 
compelled,  but  was  regarded  as  contrary  to  the  plain 
words  of  the  Acts  against  the  population  and  decay  of 
tillage.  Shakespeare's  land  was  not  in  Welcombe  field, 
but  he  would  naturally  object  to  anything  that  would 
injure  his  tithes,  having  special  regard  to  the  very 
high  prices  for  corn  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Stratford. 
Mr.  Thomas  Greene,  Town  Clerk  of  Stratford,  made 
notes  upon  the  proposed  inclosure,  which  have  now 
been  separately  published  by  Dr.  Ingleby.^  The  ex- 
tracts from  these  notes  are  given  in  modern  spelling 
for  the  reader's  convenience. 

**Jovis:  17  No:[vembris,  1614].  My  cousin  Shakespeare 
coming  yesterday  to  town  {i.e.  Stratford),  I  went  to  see  him 
how  he  did.  He  told  me  that  they  assured  him  they  meant 
to  inclose  no  further  than  to  Gospel  Bush  .  .  .  and  he  and 
Mr.  Hall  say,  they  think  there  will  be  nothing  done  at  all. '' 

The  Town  Council  met  on  the  23rd  of  December  : 

"  A  Hall."  Letters  written,  one  to  Mr.  Mainwaring, 
another  to  Mr.  Shakespeare,  with  almost  all  the  company's 
hands  to  either.     I  also  writ  of  myself  to  my  cousin  Shake- 

^  Tothtlly  as  in  text,  ed.  167 1,  p.  174. 

^  Birming'haiii,  1885.  '  i,e,  a  council-meeting. 


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INCLOSURE  OF  WELCOMBE   FIELD    149 

speare  the  copies  of  all  our  oaths  made,^  and  then  also  a 
note  of  the  inconveniences  would  grow  by  the  inclosure." 

A  few  days  afterwards  there  is  a  note  of  an  agree- 
ment with  Mr.  Replingham,  providing  an  indemnity 
for  Shakespeare  against  loss  on  tithes,  Mr.  Greene 
being  now  added  as  a  party :  *'  9  Jan^.,  1614.  Mr.  Rep- 
lingham,  28  Oct'.,  articled  with  Mr.  Shakespeare,  and 
then  I  was  put  in  by  T.  Lucas."  Greene  evidently  had 
acquired  some  interest  in  the  tithes.  The  next  entry 
runs  as  follows:  "11  Jan^.,  1614.  Mr.  Mainwaring 
and  his  agreement  for  me  with  my  cousin  Shake- 
speare." The  final  entry  has  been  the  subject  of  some 
discussion  2  "  Sept.  Mr.  Shakespeare  telling  J.  Greene 
that  I  was  not  able  to  bear  the  inclosing  of  Welcombe." 
As  Thomas  Greene  and  Shakespeare  were  acting  as 
partners,  it  does  not  much  matter  which  of  them  made 
the  objection.  Some  read  the  passage,  however,  as  if 
/  were  used  for  he  or  a,  which  in  the  local  dialects 
were  almost  equivalent.^ 

Shortly  before  Shakespeare's  death  in  1616,  the  Cor- 
poration agreed  to  petition  against  the  inclosure,  as  an 
injury  to  the  Church,  charities,  and  tithes ;  and  it  was 
ordered  during  the  Lent  Assizes  at  Warwick  that  no 
inclosure  to  the  decay  of  tillage  should  take  place 
without  leave  of  the  justices  in  open  Assizes ;  and 
this  order  was  confirmed  on  the  same  circuit  two  years 
afterwards.  Mr.  Combe  proceeded  in  the  teeth  of 
these  orders  to  throw  down  the  banks,  and  to  cut  up 
the  400  acres  of  corn-land  into  pasture-fields.  The  Cor- 
poration appealing  to  the  Privy  Council,  Sir  Richard 
Verney  and  others  were  commissioned  to  view  the 
place  and   report;  and  early  in   161 8  the  cause  was 

^  The  handwriting' is  difficult  to  read,  and  the  phrase  *'  oaths  made  "  is 
Dr.  Ingleby's  conjecture.     Others  read  simply  "acts." 

*  See  Henry  K,  it  3, 9:  "'A  made  a  finer  end";  and  wf.,  iii.  2, 28:  "Lest 
'a  should  be  thought  a  coward."  The  obvious  explanation  in  this  case  is 
that  Thomas  Greene  quoted  Shakespeare's  words  in  oratio  fecta. 


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ISO  NATURAL  HISTORY 

sent  for  arbitration  to  Sir  Julius  Caesar,  Master  of  the 
Rolls,  and  Sir  Edward  Coke,  late  Lord  Chief  Justice. 
On  the  1 2th  of  March  the  Privy  Council  wrote  to  Mr. 
Combe  about  his  disobedience,  and  ordered  that  his 
inclosures  should  be  forthwith  laid  open,  that  the 
pasture  should  be  turned  back  into  arable,  and  the 
banks  and  meers  restored,  at  his  peril  if  he  made  any 
further  resistance. 

II 

There  are  allusions  to  the  system  of  common-field 
husbandry,  both  in  the  plays  and  the  sonnets,  which 
indicate  that  Shakespeare  had  in  his  mind  the  un- 
drained  corn-field  and  "  water  furlongs  "  extending  by 
the  stream  of  the  Avon.  The  open  fallows  on  which 
the  sheep  were  turned  appear,  as  we  have  noted,  in  the 
interchange  of  repartee  between  Boyet  and  Maria  in 
Love's  Labour^ s  Lost;  a  common  belongs  to  several, 
but  all  several  things  are  not  common.^  With  this 
we  may  compare  the  lines  in  the  137th  Sonnet : — 

**  Why  should  my  heart  think  that  a  several  plot 
Which  my  heart  knows  the  wide  world's  common  place?"* 

Another  passage  in  the  same  play  refers  to  the  breed- 
ing of  wild-fowl  in  the  riverside  fields.  Longaville  is 
rebuking  Berowne  for  an  illogical  remark :  **  He  weeds 
the  corn  and  still  lets  grow  the  weeding " ;  and  his 
friend  retorts,  with  a  reference  to  the  marshy  fields, 
"The  Spring  is  near  when  green  geese  are  a-breed- 
ing."*  Then  in  A  Midsummer  Ntghfs  Dream  we 
have  a  picture  of  "wild  gttst  that  the  creeping  fowler 
eye  "  ;  *  and  we  find  from  early  books  on  sporting  that 
the  gray-lags  and  barnacle  geese  used  often  to  be  seen 
feeding  in  the  furlongs,  and  that  the  fowlers  caught 

1  Sup,,  p.  145.  « 11.  9-10. 

*  Love's  Labour* s  Losty  i.  i,  96-7. 

^  Midsummer  Nights  Dream,  iii.  a,  2a 


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WILD-FOWL  151 

them  there  with  limed  rods,  or  used  the  stalking-horse 
to  get  within  shot.  Instructions  on  these  points  will 
be  found  in  The  Experienced  Fowler.  **  In  Winter  time 
when  no  Snow  liesi  the  Wild-geese  and  Barnacles  re- 
sort to  the  green  Wheat  to  Grase,  here  you  must 
prick  down  large  Rods  in  the  Furrows,  as  near  the 
colour  of  the  Earth  as  may  be,  and  chuse  those  Furrows 
where  there  is  Water."  ^  For  stalking  the  sportsman 
required  a  canvas  screen,  cut  into  the  shape  of  a  tree 
with  twigs  and  branches,  or  a  cow  or  stag,  or  any  other 
large  creature  with  which  the  wild-fowl  were  familiar ; 
but  the  best  plan  was  to  have  '^an  old  staid  horse" 
that  would  not  mind  the  firing  ;  ''and  you  must  guide 
him  with  nothing  but  a  String  of  a  Grass-colour,  or 
in  Snowy  Weather  white,  about  his  nether  Chap,  about 
two  or  three  Yards  long  ;  teach  him  to  walk  gently  on 
the  Banks  of  Brooks  and  Rivers,  or  in  open  Fields,  in 
a  grazing  posture."  The  fowler  needed  a  good  fire- 
lock, about  as  large  as  a  harquebuss;  ''it  is  not  so 
discernable  to  the  Fowl  as  a  Match-lock,  neither  so 
troublesome;  and  then  again  in  Rain,  Snow,  Fogs, 
or  windy  weather  there  is  no  fear  of  extinguishing, 
as  a  Match  often  is,  when  you  are  many  Miles  from  a 
House,  perhaps,  and  then  if  you  have  not  a  Tinder- 
box  at  hand,  your  Sport  for  a  time  is  marred."  ^ 

We  must  not  forget  the  "  russet-pated  chough  "  that 
swarmed  in  the  open  fields,  "  many  in  sort,  rising  and 
cawing  at  the  gun's  report."'  These  generally  have 
been  taken  for  the  Cornish  choughs,  the  epithet 
"russet-pated"  being  supposed  to  refer  to  their  red 
beaks  and  eyes;  if  "russet-patted"  be  taken  as  the 
true  reading,  according  to  Professor  Newton's  sugges- 
tion, the  word  would  refer  to  their  red  legs  and  feet. 

^  The  Experienced  Fowler:  or^  The  Gentleman's  Recreation^  etc, 
printed  for  G.  Conyers  at  the  Golden  Ring,  and  J.  Sprint  at  the  Bell  in 
Little  Britain,  p.  66. 

^  /i/.,  pp.  49,  41.  *  Midsummer  Nights  Dream,  iii.  2,  21 -2. 


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152  NATURAL  HISTORY 

For  an  accurate  description  of  the  bird  we  may  refer  to 
Mr.  Cecil  Smith's  Birds  of  Somersetshire.  The  beak, 
legSy  and  toes,  he  says,  are  all  of  a  sealing-wax  red ;  the 
claws  are  black;  **the  irides  are  of  two  colours,  the 
inner  ring  being  red  and  the  outer  blue ;  the  eyelids 
are  red ;  the  whole  of  the  plumage  is  of  a  beautiful 
black  shot  with  purple.'*^  The  Cornish  chough  is  a 
frequenter  of  sea-cliffs,  and  always  has  been  kept  from 
occupying  the  inland  parts  by  **his  enemy,  the  jack- 
daw." The  acts  for  the  destruction  of  crows  and 
choughs,  passed  by  Henry  VHI.  and  renewed  by 
Elizabeth,  appear  to  relate  to  jackdaws,  as  distin- 
guished from  Cornish  choughs.  Parliament  declared 
that  ^'an  innumerable  number  of  rooks,  crows,  and 
choughs,  do  daily  breed  and  increase  throughout  this 
realm,  which  yearly  do  destroy  and  consume  a  wonder- 
ful and  marvellous  great  quantity  of  corn  and  grain  "  ; 
and  it  was  enacted  that  the  noxious  fowl  should  be 
destroyed  by  means  of  birds-nesting,  and  by  crow-nets 
to  be  kept  in  every  parish  and  to  be  used  with  a  bait 
described  as  *^a  sharp  made  of  chaff."  The  word 
"  russet-pated "  seems  to  refer  to  the  mingled  black 
and  ash-coloured  plumage  of  the  jackdaw's  neck.  We 
hear  in  one  of  Captain  Marryat's  novels  of  **a  dandy 
gray-russet  cap  " ;  and  it  is  well  known  that  russet  was 
used  not  long  ago  as  being  the  name  of  a  grey 
material.  We  cannot  be  quite  sure,  of  course,  what 
the  drapers  may  have  meant  by  the  word  in  Shake- 
speare's day ;  but  there  is  a  passage  in  Stow's  Survey 
which  seems  to  show  that  it  implied  a  mixture  of 
colours.  Stow  quoted  the  household  accounts  of 
Thomas,  Earl  of  Lancaster,  for  the  seventh  year  of 
Edward  IL,  and  noticed  that  among  the  liveries  pro- 
vided for  Christmas  was  a  cloth  of  russet  for  the 
Bishop  of  Anjou,  and  stuff  of  the  same  colour  for 
certain    poor    men;    on    which    he    adds    the    note: 

'  C.  Smith,  The  Birds  of  Somersetshire^  1869,  p.  221. 


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'^RUSSET.PATED"  CHOUGHS  153 

^^ Northern  russet ...  I  have  seen  sold  for  Four  Pence 
the  Yard,  and  was  good  Cloth  of  a  mingled  Colour."^ 
The  description  of  the  Shepherd  in  Greene's  Menaphon 
shows,  at  any  rate,  that  it  was  not  an  ordinary  red. 
Menaphon,  we  are  told,  was  attired  in  a  **  russet  jacket, 
red  sleeves  of  camlet,  a  blue  bonnet  and  round  slop  of 
country  cloth."*  There  are  passages  in  Shakespeare's 
plays  showing  that  the  word  was  used  as  relating 
rather  to  the  quality  of  a  stufif  than  to  any  colour  with 
which  it  might  have  been  dyed  ;  as,  for  example,  when 
Biron  talks  of  tafifeta  phrases  in  contrast  with  **  russet 
Yeas  and  honest  kersey  Noes,"*  or  when  Hamlet's 
friend  points  to  the  breaking  of  the  dawn : — 

*^  But,  look,  the  morn,  in  russet  mantle  clad 
Walks  o'er  the  dew  of  yon  high  eastward  hill."* 

Let  us  now  examine  a  few  of  the  passages  in  which 
Shakespeare  seems  to  be  distinctly  referring  to  the 
scenery  and  natural  products  of  the  corn-fields  and 
meadows  near  the  Avon.  We  might  include  the  river 
itself  and  the  willows  reflected  in  its  *' glassy  stream,"^ 
remembering  the  poet's  way  of  describing  the  flight 
of  the  wild  geese,®  or  the  "doting  mallard,"^  the 
wounded  duck  in  the  sedge,®  and  the  little  grebe,  or 
dive-dapper,  "peering  through  a  wave."^  He  re- 
membered how  the  larks  were  caught  in  the  great 
stubbles  about  harvest -time,  just  before  the  wild 
hobbies,  or  lark-hawks,  began  migrating.  Some  much 
delight,  said  Robert  Burton,  to  take  larks  with  day- 
nets  and  other  small  birds  with  chaff-nets  ;^^  decoy  birds 

^  Stow,  Survey y  ed.  Strype,  1720,  bk.  i.  pp.  243-4.     **Anjou"  is  used 
here,  as  in  many  other  instances,  as  equivalent  to  Angers. 
"  Greene,  Menaphon^  ed.  Arber,  p.  35. 
'  Lovers  Labour's  Lost^  v.  2,  406, 412-3.  *  Hamlet^  i.  i,  166-7. 

•  Hamlet^  iv.  7,  167-8.  •  Midsummer  Nights  Dream^  u.s. 
'  Antony  and  Cleopatra^  iii.  10,  20. 

*  Much  Ado  about  Nothings  ii.  i,  209-10.         "  Venus  and  AdoniSy  86. 
"  AfMt  of  Mel y  ii.  §2,  mem.  4  (ed.  Shilleto,  ii.  84). 


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154  NATURAL  HISTORY 

being  set,  as  Ariel  baited  his  trap  with  frippery,  for 
a  ''  stale  "  to  catch  these  thieves.^  As  to  the  larks,  we 
have  the  railing  attack  upon  Wolsey : — 

**  If  we  live  thus  tamely^ 
To  be  thus  jaded  by  a  piece  of  scarlet, 
Farewell  nobility ;  let  his  grace  go  forward, 
And  dare  us  with  his  cap  like  larks."' 

The  fowler  took  a  little  trammel  of  green  thread,  like 
a  landing-net,  and  a  hobby  on  a  long  pole ;  and  creep- 
ing up  to  the  place  where  the  flock  alighted,  he 
suddenly  held  up  the  hawk,  which  cowed  the  birds 
so  that  they  could  be  netted  or  taken  by  hand,  "they 
are  so  fearful  of  the  Hobby,  which  preys  on  them 
about  this  Season."*  We  should  remember  also  the 
fluttering  of  the  young  Adonis,  "Look  how  a  bird 
lies  tangled  in  a  net";*  and  the  jest  about  "bat- 
fowling" in  The  Tempest^  As  to  the  latter  sport, 
"Have  a  Wicker,"  says  the  Experienced  Fowler,  "with 
a  handle  to  hold  on  high,  in  which  you  can  place  three 
or  four  Links. "  ®  We  hear  of  superstitious  fancies  about 
the  birds  of  night,  and  not  merely  as  to  hooting  and 
screeching  owls,  but  of  dismal  night-ravens  and  night- 
crows  that  throttle  out  a  kind  of  croaking  voice  like  one 
that  is  strangled.  When  the  wicked  King  Richard  was 
born,  the  "night-crow  cried,  aboding  luckless  time."^ 
When  the  singer  in  Much  Ado  about  Nothing  sings, 
"Sigh  no  more,"  and  "Sing  no  more  ditties,  sing  no 
mo,"  what  says  the  mocking  Benedick?  "An  ill 
singer,  my  lord," — in  itself  a  bold  jest  against  the 
sweet  musician.  Jack  Wilson,  who  took  the  part  of 

*  Tempest^  iv.  i,  187.  *  Henry  VIIL^  iii.  2,  279-82. 
'  Experienced  Fowler,  tus,,  p.  55. 

^  Venus  and  Adonis^  67.  '  Tempest^  \u  i,  185. 

*  Experienced  Fowler,  u,s,,  p.  89.  One  man  beats  the  hedge  with  a 
pole,  and  one  or  two  more  carry  long  bushes,  walking  near  the  light : 
when  the  birds  are  *'  unroosted,"  they  flutter  about  the  links,  so  that  the 
men  with  the  bushes  easily  beat  them  down. 

7  2  Henry  VI.,  v.  6,45. 


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RAVENS  AND  CROWS  155 

Baltasar — "and  I  pray  God  his  bad  voice  bode  no 
mischief;  I  had  as  lief  have  heard  the  night-raven, 
come  what  plague  could  have  come  after  it,"^  The 
myths  about  this  grim  raven  come  down  from  the 
remotest  antiquity ;  they  appear  in  the  Greek  romances 
about  Alexander;  they  reappeared  in  our  time  in 
Edgar  Poe's  vision  of  the  ominous  bird  of  yore. 
**Tell  me,  tell  me  I  implore,"  sighs  the  haunted 
wretch,  **tell  me  what  thy  lordly  name  is  on  the 
night's  Plutonian  shore."  John  Ray,  the  great 
botanist,  is  one  of  the  best  witnesses  in  any  question 
about  Shakespeare's  country.  He  paid  special  atten- 
tion to  the  natural  history  of  the  Midlands  during  his 
visits  to  Mr.  Willughby  at  Sutton  Coldfield ;  and  a 
passage  in  his  travels  shows  that  the  night-raven  of 
Shakespeare's  time  was  the  squacco  heron,  which 
roosts  by  streams  and  makes  a  groaning  or  gobbling 
in  the  dark.  He  made  a  bye-journey  from  Leyden  to 
Sevenhuys  to  see  '*a  remarkable  grove  where,  in  time 
of  year,  several  sorts  of  wildfowl  build  and  breed."  He 
observed  there,  in  great  numbers,  shags  and  spoon- 
bills, and  the  Quack  or  lesser  heron,  and  **the  Germans 
call  this  bird  the  Night-raven,  because  it  makes  a  noise 
in  the  night."*  The  same  writer's  list  of  northern 
words  explains  another  allusion  to  '^  Night's  black 
agents,"  as  they  appeared  in  the  fevered  imagination 
of  Macbeth : — 

' '  Light  thickens,  and  the  crow 
Makes  wing  to  the  rooky  wood. "  * 

This  has  nothing  to  do  with  Tennyson's  *' black  re- 
public" on  the  elms,*  or  the  crow  "that  leads  the 
clanging  rookery  home."*  It  is  rather  the  night-crow 
preparing  for  deeds  of  rapine  in  the  misty  woods, 

*  Much  Ado  about  Nothing,  ii.  3,  83-5. 

*  J.  Ray,  Travels  through  thg  Low-Countries,  etc.,  2nd  ed.,  1738,  i.  33. 

*  Macbeth ^  Hi.  2,  50-1.  *  Aylmers  Fields  529. 

*  LocksUy  Hall,  stanza  34. 


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156  NATURAL  HISTORY 

since  **  rooky"  in  Shakespeare's  home  meant  vaporous, 
or  reeking,  and  the  epithet  implies  no  more  than  such 
phrases  as  the  reek  of  sighs,  or  a  lover's  breath,  the 
smoke  of  the  lime-kiln,*  or  **reek  o'  the  rotten  fens."* 
Ray  also  explained  another  difficult  phrase,  which 
Shakespeare  transferred  from  the  milking-shed  into 
the  domain  of  magic  and  witchcraft.  The  Stratford 
Records  show  that  there  was  once  an  altercation  be- 
tween two  old  women,  in  which  Goody  Bromlie  crushed 
Goody  Holder  *'  with  the  execration,  Arent  the,  wich  I " 
Mr.  Halliwell-Phillipps^  remarks  that  the  phrase  is 
shown  by  this  entry  to  have  been  commonly  used  by 
the  lower  classes  in  Stratford.  The  words  assume  a 
mystical  form  as  they  appear  in  Macbeth  and  King 
Lear:  **  Aroint  thee,  witch  1  the  rump-fed  ronyon 
cries."*  We  observe  how  the  snarling  note  comes  in, 
and  we  are  reminded  of  Romeo  and  the  Nurse. 

''  Doth  not  rosemary  and  Romeo  begin  both  with  a  letter? 
Ay,  nurse,  what  of  that  ?  both  with  an  R. 
Ah,  mocker !  that's  the  dog's  name !  "* 

In  the  fish-fag  quarrel  the  sting  lay  in  the  epithet 
**  Witch."  Aroint  thee,  or  ^'rynt  thee,"  was  a  milk- 
maid's word,  telling  her  cow  to  stand  away  from  the 
pail.  '*  Rynt  ye,"  said  Ray,  is  '*  By  your  leave,  stand 
handsomely."  There  was  also  a  proverb  about  an 
impudent  maid  who  had  treated  her  mother  like  one  of 
the  cows.  **  Rynt  you  Witch,  qiwth  Besse  Locket  to 
her  Mother.**  The  jest  had  become  a  proverb  in 
Cheshire  and  the  neighbouring  districts.  ® 

^  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor^  iii.  3,  86. 

'  Cortolanus,  iii.  12,  13.  *  op,  city  i.  142. 

*  Macbeth,  i.  i,  6.     See  also  King  Lear,  iti.  4,  129. 
^  Romeo  and  Juliet,  ii.  4,  219-23. 

*  Ray,  Collection  of  English  Words,  3rd  ed.,  1737,  p.  52. 


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MEADOW-FLOWERS  157 

III 

The  country  round  Stratford  appears  as  we  read  the 
Masque  in  The  Tempest.^  The  vineyards,  indeed,  and 
the  tall  broom-groves  have  a  foreign  appearance ; 
but  we  are  at  home  in  the  *'rich  leas"  of  corn,  the 
sheep  downs,  and  flat  meads  thatched  with  stover  for 
winter-keep.  It  should  be  noticed  that  "leas"  are 
meant  for  lands  in  tillage,  as  in  the  Ley-field  at  Row- 
ington,  and  not  for  fallows,  which  the  word  would 
technically  denote.*  This  appears  by  Fitzherbert's 
instructions  how  to  amend  lea-ground  *'the  whiche 
hath  ben  errable  lande  of  late":  **  Ye  must  take  hede 
howe  the  leyse  lye,  and  specially  that  they  lye  nat  to 
hyghe,  for  an  they  do,  it  is  more  profit  to  the  husbande 
to  caste  it  downe  agayne,  and  sowe  it  with  otes."^ 

There  is  sometimes  a  difliculty  in  understanding  the 
references  to  meadow-flowers,  owing  chiefly  to  the  fact 
that  the  same  name  is  used  for  different  plants,  accord- 
ing to  the  fancy  of  the  nurses  and  children  in  various 
districts ;  the  names  themselves,  it  may  be  added, 
being  so  vague  that  there  is  no  reason  why  they  should 
not  be  used  for  plants  that  are  totally  unlike  in  appear- 
ance. Ophelia's  crow-flowers,*  for  instance,  may  be 
buttercups,  or  bluebells,  or  any  other  flower  that  blows 
when  the  rooks  are  nesting.  Her  *' long-purples"  are 
the  orchids  called  *'dead  man's  thumbs";  but  Tennyson 
was  thinking  of  the  great  willowy  loose-strife,  when  he 
described  the  "long  purples"  creeping  towards  the 
bramble-roses  in  a  country  churchyard.^  Shakespeare's 
crow-flower  was  the  ragged  robin,  or  meadow-pink, 

'  Tempest t  iv.  i,  60-75. 

"  As  in  Henry  V,,  v.  2,  44,  "her  fallow  leas."     In  Timon  of  Athens , 
iv.  3,  192,  on  the  other  hand,  we  have  "plough-torn  leas,"  u,s,y  p.  142. 

*  Fitzherbert,  Book  of  Surveying,  1523,  cap.  xxvii.,  fol.  44,  back. 

*  Hamletf  iv.  7,  170.  Glossary  to  "Globe"  Shakespeare  explains  as 
"  the  commoner  kinds  of  ranunculus." 

'  "A  Dirg^e"  in  Juvenilia^  stanza  v. 


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158  NATURAL  HISTORY 

which  some  called  the  *' cuckoo  gilliflower,"  and  this 
led  at  once  to  its  being  confused  with  the  red  campion 
of  the  hedges  and  fields,  which  is  more  regularly 
known  as  Flos  cuculi  or  cuckoo-flower.  Even  in 
Shakespeare's  time,  however,  there  was  a  third  com- 
petitor for  the  name.  We  learn  from  Gerard  that  people 
were  beginning  to  think  that  the  pale  meadow-cress 
was  the  real  cuckoo-flower,  because  it  bloomed  in  April 
and  May,  ''when  the  Cuckow  doth  begin  to  sing  her 
pleasant  notes  without  stammering";^  and  Tennyson 
brought  sufficient  authority  from  Lincolnshire  to  estab- 
lish the  name  among  us,  as  witness  his  pale  Margaret's 
''  melancholy  sweet  and  frail  as  perfume  of  the  cuckoo- 
flower," while  the  May  Queen's  song  tells  us  how  the 
honeysuckle 

**  round  the  porch  has  wov'n  its  wavy  bowers, 
And  by  the  meadow-trenches  blow  the  faint  sweet  cuckoo- 
flowers." 

Shakespeare  preferred  to  use  the  name  for  the  red 

flowers  in  the  high-grown  wheat,  as  when  old  King 

Lear  passes,  .     .       ,     , 

*' singing  aloud ; 

Crown'd  with  rank  fumiter  and  furrow-weeds, 

With  burdocks,  hemlock,  nettles,  cuckoo-flowers. 

Darnel,  and  all  the  idle  weeds  that  grow 

In  our  sustaining  corn."^ 

For  the  children's  buttercups,  or  butter-flowers,  Shake- 
speare had  the  old  name  of  the  cuckoo-bud,  but  for 
the  pale  meadow-cress  he  used  the  Warwickshire  word. 
Gerard  claimed  to  have  been  the  person  who  taught 
the  Londoners  that  the  "faint  bloom"  was  the  lady- 
smock:  **  They  are  commonly  called  ...  in  North- 
folke,  Caunterburie  bels :  at  the  Namptwich  in  Cheshire 
where  I  had  my  beginning,  Ladie  smocks,  which  hath 
given  me  cause  to  christen  it  after  my  countrie  fashion."  * 

*  Gerard,  «.*.,  1597,  lib,  2,  cap,  18,  p.  203.         '  King  Lear ,  iv,  4,  2-6. 
'  Gerard,  u,s. 


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CUCKOO-FLOWERS  AND  MARIGOLDS   159 

But  Shakespeare  was  beforehand  with  him,  and  taught 
his  public  their  rustic  lesson  in  Love's  Labout^s  Lost. 
**  Will  you  hear  the  dialogue  that  the  two  learned  men 
have  compiled  in  praise  of  the  owl  and  the  cuckoo? 

When  daisies  pied  and  violets  blue 
And  lady-smocks  all  silver-white 

And  cuckoo-buds  of  yellow  hue 
Do  paint  the  meadows  with  delight."^ 

The  poets  have  always  loved  the  wild  marigold  as 
the  true  "heliotrope"  or  "girasol,"  and  faithful  fol- 
lower of  the  sun.  Her  petals  droop  and  close  as  his 
steeds  reach  their  western  meadows;  then  Aurora 
throws  open  her  red-rose  gate, 

''And  winking  Mary-buds  begin 
To  ope  their  golden  eyes."  * 

The  legend  was  prettily  used  in  The  Spanish  Gipsy, 
written  in  part  by  that  William  Rowley  who  was  said 
to  have  been  Shakespeare's  friend,  A  tawny  chieftain 
is  blessing  a  young  pair  who  make  vows  on  a  garland 
of  flowers ;  the  gipsy-man  is  to  be  the  sun  and  his  bride 
the  obsequious  flower  : — 

**  She  to  you  the  Marigold, 
To  none  but  you  her  leaves  unfold.  "• 

Shakespeare  has  compared  the  sensitive  blossoms  to 
court-favours  that  bask  in  a  smile,  and  are  frozen  in  a 
moment  by  cold  looks  : — 

''  Great  princes'  favourites  their  fair  leaves  spread 
But  as  the  marigold  at  the  sun's  eye, 
And  in  themselves  their  pride  lies  buried, 
For  at  a  frown  they  in  their  glory  die.'** 

Another  writer  of  that  time  protested  that  the  sweet 
**Caltha''  of  the  poets  stands  up  and  braves  ^*Sir 

^  Love's Lab(yuf^sLastfU,s.,6^-6t9o^-*l.         '  Cymheline^  \u  3,  25-6. 
'  Spanish  Gipsy ^  1653,  act  iv.  sc.  i.  ^  Sonnet  xxv.  5-8. 


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i6o  NATURAL   HISTORY 

Phoebus,"  and  '*  seconds  him"  as  a  rival  both  at  morn- 
ing and  night|  ^'setting  the  silly  sun-burnt  god  at 
scorn  " : 

**  Who  in  the  morning  spreads  her  yellow  hair 
Like  to  the  blaze  of  gc^den  Phoebus  bright : 

That  makes  the  heavenly  climes  to  shine  so  clear. 
Illuminating  all  the  world  with  light, 

So  shines  my  Marygold  so  fair  in  sight ; 
Till  in  the  dark  when  as  the  day  is  done, 
She  closeth  up  and  setteth  with  the  Sun."^ 

Thus  far  sings  Thomas  Cutwode,  or  "Cutwode 
Lyte,"  as  some  called  him,  from  his  imitations  of 
Mr.  Lyte  of  Lyte's  Gary,  the  eminent  botanist.  The 
marigold,  in  fact,  was  one  of  the  commonest  of  weeds, 
and  was  flaunted  by  the  early  ballad-writers,  because 
it  met  their  eyes  in  every  corn-field.  **  Golds  "  was  the 
common  name,  and  it  was  the  farmer's  task  in  June 
to  clear  the  ground  of  the  branching  growth  that 
threatened  the  life  of  his  crop.  '*  Golds  hath  a  short 
jagged  leaf,  and  groweth  half  a  yard  high,  and  hath 
a  yellow  flower  as  broad  as  a  groat,  and  is  an  ill  weed, 
and  groweth  commonly  in  barley  and  peas."^  We 
may  quote  a  passage  from  Mr.  Loveday's  Tour,  as 
printed  by  the  Roxburghe  Club.  Writing  in  1732,  he 
says  of  the  Scottish  farmers:  '^ Their  country  cannot 
reproach  them  for  lack  of  culture :  the  cold  North 
produces  extreme  good  oats,  and  that  chiefly :  Gule,  a 
yellow  flower,  grows  among  their  corn  and  in  above 
a  double  proportion  to  it:  they  pretend  that  'tis  im- 
possible to  clear  the  ground  of  this  incroaching  weed."  ^ 

The  darnel,  another  of  Shakespeare's  idle  weeds,* 

^  Thomas  Cutwode,  Caltha  Poetarumf  1599,  stt  i9-2a  In  the  original 
text  the  reading  is,  "  when  as  the  day  is  dun,"  which  may  be  an  amiable 
conceit  of  the  poet,  pla3rfully  allying  "  dun  "  with  **  dark." 

*  Fitzherbert,  Booke  of  Husbandries  §  20,  p.  3a 

*  Diary  of  a  Tour  in  1732^  by  John  Loveday,  ed.  J,  E.  T.  Loveday, 
Edinbui^h,  1890,  p.  162. 

*  KingLear^  u,s,    Henry  V,,  v.  2,  45. 


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WEEDS  i6i 

was  also  a  parasite  of  the  barley,  abounding  in  the 
fields,  ''especially  in  a  moist  and  dankish  soil."^ 
Some  thought  that  it  was  a  kind  of  degenerate 
barley,  and  like  the  cockle,  it  possessed  a  redeeming 
virtue  in  the  fact  that  there  was  **much  flour  in  that 
seed."  2 

The  ^*  rank  fumiter,"  or  fumitory,^  is  another  of  the 
migrant  weeds  that  follow  the  plough.  As  Linnaeus 
said  of  the  deadly  henbane,  the  darnel  and  nettle  and 
fumitory  have  lived  as  the  companions  of  man  since 
houses  and  fields  were  invented.  The  corn-field  fumi- 
tory, with  red  waxy  flowers,  came  probably  with  seed- 
corn  from  Sicily.  Ray  found  a  yellow-flowered  kind, 
supposed  to  have  been  introduced  by  the  Crusaders. 
It  grew  in  several  parts  of  Warwickshire,  **  ramping 
over  walls  and  hedges,"  and  by  some  of  the  roadsides 
he  noticed  a  smaller  variety  with  blossoms  a  greenish 
white.  Among  these  gaudy  weeds  the  ''pale  bleak 
pansy"  makes  little  show;  but  it  was  always  a  favourite 
in  Warwickshire,  and  Shakespeare  has  given  it  a  place 
among  the  immortals.  It  is  "a  little  western  flower," 
King  Oberon  tells  us,  "and  maidens  call  it  "love-in- 
idleness."*  Mr.  Ellacombe  says  that  the  name  "  love- 
in-idle  "  is  said  to  be  still  used  among  Warwickshire 
rustics,  with  the  meaning  of  "  love  in  vain,"  or  wasted 
aflfection.*  In  Gerard's  time  the  flower  was  known  as 
"  Harts  ease,  Pansies,  Liue  in  Idlenes,  Cull  me  to  you, 
and  three  faces  in  a  hood."«  The  name  "heartsease" 
properly  belonged  to  the  yellow  wall-flower,  which  was 
used  as  a  cordial  against  melancholy.  As  for  pansies, 
"that's  for  thoughts,"  said  Ophelia;''  but  "pansy" 
and  "fancy"  are  not  unlike  in  sound,  and  it  was  prob- 

•  Gerard,  u.s,,  1597,  lib.  i,  cap.  51,  p.  71. 
"  Fitzherbert,  u.s. 

•  King  Lear  sxid  Henty  V.,  u.s.,  p.  143. 

•  Midsummer  Night's  Dream^  ii.  i,  166-8. 

•  H,  N.  Ellacombe,  Plani  Lore  0/ Shakespeare^  p.  151. 

•  Gerard,  «.*.,  1597,  lib.  2,  c.  299,  p.  705.         '  Hamlet^  iv.  5,  176-7. 

M 


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i62  NATURAL  HISTORY 

ably  to  this  accident  that  the  **  pretty  Paunce  "  owed  its 
"  amatory  character." 

Without  following  him  too  closely  in  his  constant 
allusions  to  the  fields  and  woods,  we  may  note  that 
Shakespeare  evidently  loved  strength  and  bcightness 
in  his  trees  and  flowers.  He  prefers  the  bold  oxlip 
to  the  pale-faced  company  in  the  primrose  path ;  ^  the 
dim  violets  are  loved  for  their  marvellous  sweetness, 
**  sweeter  than  the  lids  of  Juno's  eyes";^  his  dafifodils' 
are  not  the  twin-belled  flowers  of  the  south,  but  the  old 
Crusader's  dafifodils,  ''white  as  the  sun,  though  pale 
as  a  lily,"  which  Ray  found  growing  in  crowds  on  his 
journeys  through  Arden.  If  we  looked  with  the  poet 
into  the  cottage  gardens,  we  should  find  among  the 
favourites  the  bright  and  jewelled  Crown  Imperial,  the 
great  Mary-lilies  in  sheaves,  and  the  golden  Flower-de- 
luce.*    We  pass  with  a  brief  reference  to  Caltha : — 

"  Here  could  I  set  you  down  the  honeysuckle, 
The  pretty  pink  and  purple  pianet, 
The  bugles,  borage,  and  the  bluebottle. 
The  bonny  belamour  and  violet. "  ^ 

We  might  mention  the  pied  gillyflowers,  of  which 
Perdita  would  have  none  in  her  garden,*  for  the  sake 
of  Shakespeare's  allusion  to  an  odd  fashion  of  his 
time.  It  was  the  rage  to  grow  pinks  and  carnations  in 
all  sizes  and  colours.  Gerard  speaks  in  his  Herbal  of 
a  violet  ''Gilloflower,"  of  purple  and  yellow  blooms,^ 
and  of  ''Pagiants  or  Pagion  colour,  Horse-flesh, 
blunket,"®  with  a  bewildering  profusion  of  epithets. 
The  gardeners,  as  Shakespeare  has  shown,  professed 
to  create  all  their  varieties  by  grafting  and  change  of 
soil ;  but  Ray  learned  in  the  next  generation,  from  a 

*  Winter^ s  Tale^  iv.  4,  122-7.  '  Ihid,^  120-2. 

•  IHiLf  ii9-2a  *  Ihid.t  126-7. 

•  Caltha  Poetarum,  u,s.,  St.  24.        •  Winters  Tale,  u.s,,  84-5. 
^  Gerard,  u,s.,  lib.  2,  cap,  114,  p.  373  (of  Stocke  GUloflowers). 

*  /fit,  cap,  172,  p.  472  (of  Clove  Gilloflowers). 


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FOREST  OF  ARDEN  163 

Dutch  farmer  named  Lauremberg,  that  the  flowers 
were  coloured  red  and  green  by  watering  the  plants 
with  certain  chemicals  for  a  month  and  preventing 
exposure  to  the  dew. 

IV 

Warwickshire,  according  to  the  old  topographers, 
was  divided  into  the  Fielden  and  the  Wealden.  South 
of  Avon,  said  Speed,  the  land  was  tractable  under 
cultivation,  so  ''that  the  husbandman  smileth  in  be- 
holding his  paines,  and  the  medowing  pastures  with 
their  green  mantles  so  imbrodered  with  flowers,  that 
from  Edg-hUl  wee  may  behold  another  Eden.*'^  The 
Wealden  was  the  woodland  tract  which  is  better  known 
as  Arden.  "I  learned  at  Warwick,"  wrote  Leland, 
''that  the  most  part  of  the  shire  of  Warwick,  that 
lieth  as  Avon  River  descendeth  on  the  right  hand 
or  ripe  of  it,  is  in  Arden  (for  so  is  ancient  name  of 
that  part  of  the  shire),  "^  It  was  a  tradition  in  those 
parts  that  a  squirrel  might  once  have  skipped  from 
bough  to  bough  across  the  whole  breath  of  the  county. 
But  Leland,  writing  about  1540,  noticed  a  rapid  shrink- 
ing of  the  woods  near  Stratford.*  When  he  was 
exploring  the  country  round  Droitwich  he  remarked 
that  "  making  of  salt  is  a  great  and  notable  destruction 
of  wood,  and  hath  been,  and  shall  be  hereafter,  except 
men  use  much  coppices  of  young  wood."*  The  Act 
against  the  destruction  of  woods  was  passed  soon 
afterwards;  but  Leland  remarks  that  the  salt-boilers 
were  fetching  their  wood  from  Arden,  their  wonted 
supplies  having  failed.^    He  spoke  about  it  to  one  of 

*  Speed,  Theatre  of  the  Empire  of  Great  Britaine,  1611,  bk.  1.,  fol.  53. 

*  Leland,  Itin,^  ed.  Heame,  17 10-12,  vol.  iv.  part  ii.  p.  51  (fol.  166  a). 

'  Leland,  ieU^  p.  53  (fol.  167  b) :  *'  LitUe  wood  near  in  sight  about 
Stratford."  *  Id,,  p.  87  (fol.  185  b). 

^  Ibid,:  *'  They  be  forced  to  seek  wood  as  far  as  Worcester,  and  all  the 
parts  about  Bromsgrove,  Alvechurch,  and  Alcester." 


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i64  NATURAL  HISTORY 

the  salters  at  the  pans.^  "  I  asked  him  how  much 
wood  he  supposed  yearly  to  be  spent  at  the  furnaces, 
and  he  answered  that  by  estimate  there  was  spent 
6,000  loads  yearly.  It  is  young  pole-wood  easy  to 
be  cloven." 

There  were,  after  all,  plenty  of  woods  remaining  a 
few  years  afterwards,  when  Shakespeare  was  young ; 
and  we  can  see  by  many  passages  in  the  plays  how 
fond  he  was  of  the  high  woods,  and  the  open  moors, 
and  the  rough  sheep-farms  set  *'in  the  skirts  of  the 
forest,  like  fringe  on  a  petticoat." 

Looking  at  certain  words  of  Caliban,*  we  can  perceive 
that  the  English  landscape  was  in  the  background  of 
the  poet's  mind,  even  as  he  wove  a  mirage  of  strange 
forms  from  Africa  or  the  Atlantic  Islands.'  The  find- 
ing a  jay's  nest  shows  that  we  are  in  the  heart  of  some 
Midland  wood.  *'  Let  me  bring  thee  where  crabs 
grow,"  the  monster  whines ;  and  the  mind's  eye  sees 
the  wilding  crab  trees  bowed  down  with  red  and 
yellow  fruit  by  the  side  of  a  glade  in  the  forest. 
**  And  I  with  my  long  nails  will  dig  thee  pig-nuts"; 
and  the  phrase  at  least  takes  us  far  from  the  Atlantic, 
and  into  the  old  English  pastures  on  a  sandy  soil 
where  the  '*  kipper-nuts  "  grew.  These  were  the  roots 
of  the  drooping  plant,  looking  like  large  parsley,  which 
is  still  esteemed  a  treasure  by  schoolboys.  The  root 
was  once  considered  a  delicacy  when  boiled,  or  served 
with  pepper  in  hot  gravy.  In  Shakespeare's  time,  we 
are  told,  these  plants  grew  in  pastures  and  corn-fields 
"almost  everywhere";*  but  we  may  observe  that  the 
"earth-nut "  of  the  chalk  soils  belonged  to  a  separate 
variety.     "There  is  a  field,"  says  Gerard,  "adjoining 

*  Ibid.:  "The  people  that  be  about  the  furnaces  be  very  ill  coloured." 

"  Tempesty  ii.  2,  171-^. 

'  So  Mr.  Morton  Luce,  u,5.j  Introduction,  p.  xvii :  "There  is  the  smallest 
possible  proportion  of  local  '  fauna  and  flora/  just  enough  to  place  the 
spot  somewhere  l^eyond  seas,  and  the  rest  is  Stratford-on-Avoni  or  at 
most  England."  ^  Gerard,  m.5.,  lib,  2,  cap,  415,  p.  906. 


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SHAKESPEARE'S  ARDEN  165 

to  Highgate,  on  the  right  side  of  the  middle  of  the 
village,  covered  over  with  the  same :  and  likewise  in 
the  next  field  unto  the  conduit  heads  by  Maribone,  neer 
the  way  that  leadeth  to  Paddington  by  London,  and  in 
divers  other  places."  ^ 

The  **  Arden  *'  of  As  You  Like  It  was  a  mere  region 
of  romance,  belonging  to  King  Oberon's  friend,  the 
good  Sir  Huon  of  Bordeaux.  The  name  was  derived 
from  the  Belgian  Ardennes,  and  it  might  no  doubt  be 
connected  in  some  slight  degree  with  our  Warwick- 
shire Arden.  We  may  fairly  suppose  in  each  case 
that  the  title  of  the  district  was  given  by  its  Celtic 
occupants,  and  that  the  tribes  were  equally  devoted 
to  the  cult  of  the  huntress  Arduinna,  or  **  Diana  of 
Arden."  But  there  is  little  historical  precision  in  the 
play,  or  in  Lodge's  novel  of  Rosalynde^  on  which  its 
incidents  were  based. 

In  Lodge's  version  the  scene  is  transferred  to  the 
hot  south ;  the  lovers  hang  their  scrolls  upon  stone- 
pines,  and  sing  madrigals  under  fig  trees  and  pome- 
granates. But  Shakespeare  is  always  thinking  of  his 
English  Arden,  and  brings  the  merry  company  back 
to  the  fern-brakes  and  the  shade  of  the  greenwood 
tree.  The  Duke  is  like  the  Earl  in  Lincoln  green 
whose  mates  were  Scarlet  and  Little  John. 

"There  they  live  like  the  old  Robin  Hood  of  England  :  they 
say  many  young  gentlemen  flock  to  him  every  day,  and 
fleet  the  time  carelessly,  as  they  did  in  the  golden 
world."  « 

The  scenery,  indeed,  is  mixed  up  in  a  perplexing 
way.  A  painted  snake  slips  into  the  bush  by  the 
sleeping  Orlando : — 

"  under  which  bush's  shade 
A  lioness,  with  udders  all  drawn  dry, 
Lay  couching,  head  on  ground."* 

*  Gerard,  ibid,  (of  Earth  Nut,  Earth  Chestnut,  or  Kipper  Nut). 
'  As  You  Like  It^  i.  i,  122-5.  '  ^'^'^  'v*  3*  109-16. 


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i66  NATURAL  HISTORY 

When   Oliver  loses  his  way,  he  mixes  the  terms  of 
English  woodcraft  with  the  description  of  an  Italian 

farm : — 

**  Pray  you,  if  you  know, 
Where  in  the  purlieus  of  this  forest  stands 
A  sheep-cote  fenced  about  with  olive-trees  ?  "  ^ 

Rosalind  finds  her  copy  of  verses  hung  on  a  palm, 
instead  of  being  carved  on  a  pine,  as  in  the  older 
story.  ^*Look  here  what  I  found  on  a  palm  tree!"* 
But  this  is  no  palm  tree  of  the  south ;  it  is  the  satiny 
palm  or  sallow,  which  decked  the  Warwickshire 
churches  and  '*  made  the  country-houses  gay."  In  the 
tract  called  The  Supplication  of  the  Poor  Commons, 
there  is  a  delightful  picture  of  river  scenery  which, 
with  slight  alterations,  might  have  been  applied  to 
Shakespeare's  home.  A  traveller  is  supposed  to  have 
espied  a  fair  church,  standing  in  this  case  on  a  hill, 
and  pleasantly  set  round  with  groves  and  fields :  **  the 
goodly  green  meadows  lying  beneath,  by  the  banks  of 
a  crystalline  river,  garnished  with  willows,  poplars, 
w  palm  trees,  and  alders,  most  beautiful  to  behold.'' 
'  Shakespeare  showed  his  thorough  knowledge  of  the 
woodlands  by  his  accurate  rendering  of  the  terms  of 
the  chace.  If  we  consult  the  great  work  on  Forest 
Law,  we  shall  find  that  he  gives  them  the  exact  mean-* 
ing  in  which  they  were  used  by  the  Forest-judge  at 
his  Justice-seat.  No  purlieu-man,  for  example,  was 
allowed  to  circumvent  or  *'  fore-stall "  the  deer  ;•  **  they 
may  not  fore-stall,  but  only  let  slip  at  the  tail "  ;  but  it 
was  a  common  practice  to  get  the  wind  of  the  game 
and  drive  it  back  to  some  gap  where  the  nets  and  toils 

1  Id,,  iv.  3,  76-8. 

*  Id.,  ill.  2,  185-6.  See  Rosalynde,  ed.  H.  Morley,  1893,  p.  49:  "Where 
they  found  carved  in  the  bark  of  a  pine  tree  this  passion. "  p.  50:  "Yonder 
be  characters  graven  upon  the  bark  of  the  tall  beech  tree."  p.  82  :  "  He 
engraved  with  his  knife  on  the  bark  of  a  myrrh  tree,  this  pretty  estimate 
of  his  mistress's  perfection." 

•  Man  wood,  Treatise  of  the  Forest  Laws,  ed.  Nelson,  171 7. 


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SPORTING  TERMS  IN  SHAKESPEARE     167 

»had  been  pitched.  Just  so  the  King  of  Denmark 
speaks  of  being  '* fore-stalled  ere  we  come  to  fall:"^ 
and  Hamlet  himself  cries  to  Guildenstern,  ^' Why  do 
you  go  about  to  recover  the  wind  of  me,  as  if  you 
would  drive  me  into  a  toil?*'*  Again,  in  Love*s 
Labauf^s  Lost^  we  find  a  more  complicated  allusion  to 
the  practice : — 

''The  king  he  is  hunting  the  deer;  I  am  coursing  myself: 
they  have  pitched  a  toil :  I  am  toiling  in  a  pitch, — pitch 
that  defiles."* 

Serjeant  Manwood  gave  lists  of  the  **apt  and  meet 
terms'*  belonging  to  the  beasts  of  the  chace.  *^  You 
shall  say,"  he  teaches  us,  "Dislodge  the  Buck  I" 
Turning  to  Shakespeare  we  read  : — 

''  The  Volscians  are  dislodged,  and  Marcius  gone  : 
A  merrier  day  did  never  yet  greet  Rome."  * 

Again,  "  Yoy  shall  say  Bolt  the  Cony  I"  In  Cymbe- 
line  we  find  the  ''"bolt  of  nothing,  shot  at  nothing, 
which  the  brain  makes  of  fumes."  ^  One  might 
either  uncape  or  unkennel  the  fox :  and  Hamlet  speaks 
of  occulted  guilt  unkenneling  itself  in  a  speech ;  ^ 
and  there  is  Mr.  Ford  of  Windsor,  with  his  **  Search, 
seek,  find  out:  Til  warrant  we'll  unkennel  the  fox. 
Let  me  stop  this  way  first.  So  now,  uncape."  ^ 
When  the  chace  is  over,  said  the  learned  Serjeant, 
you  shall  say,  "the  Deer  is  broken,"  or  "the  Fox 
is  cased."  We  might  add  a  reference  to  the  famous 
maxim  of  "  First  case  your  hare" ;  and  when  Parolles 
has  been  "smoked"  by  old  Lafeu,  the  French  lords 
vow  "You  shall  see  his  fall  to-night.  .  .  .  We'll  make 
you  some  sport  with  the  fox  ere  we  case  him."® 

*  Hamlet,  Hi.  3,  49.  ■  Ai,  iii.  2,  361-2. 

•  Lifve*s  Labou/s  Last,  iv.  3,  1-3.  *  Corioianus,  v.  4,  44-5. 

*  Cymbelim,  iv.  2,  300-1.  •  Jfamlet,  iii.  2,  85-6. 
'  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor,  iii  3,  173-6, 

•  AWs  Well  that  Ends  Well,  iii.  6,  108,  iio-ii  :  see  Manwood,  «.j., 
sub  Buck,  Fox,  etc. 


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i68  NATURAL  HISTORY 

It  is  clear  that  Shakespeare  was  familiar  with  the 
Cotswold  sports,  which  were  founded^  indeed,  by 
Robert  Dover,  a  lawyer  of  Barton-on-the-Heath. 
Young  Slender  seems  to  know  something  about  grey- 
hounds: "How  does  your  fallow  greyhound,  sir?  I 
heard  say  he  was  outrun  on  Cotsall."  "Sir,  he's  a 
good  dog  and  a  fair  dog:  can  there  be  more  said? 
he  is  good  and  fair."  ^  Anyone  again  who  lived 
within  sound  and  smell  of  Paris  Garden,  and  had 
"seen  Sackerson  loose "2  and  held  him  by  the  chain, 
would  know  all  about  the  "robustious  and  rough 
coming  on"  of  the  mastiflf,'  and  bulldogs  that  "run 
winking  into  the  mouth  of  a  Russian  bear,  and  have 
their  heads  crushed  like  rotten  apples."^  Among  the 
Royal  Archives  of  Denmark  is  a  volume  of  travels  by 
Jean  Fontaine  and  Louis  Schonbub,  written  in  1630, 
which  contains  passages  illustrating  the  history  of 
public  amusements.  They  seem  to  be  as  applicable 
to  Shakespeare's  friends  at  the  Globe  as  to  the  House 
at  Blackfriars,  with  which  they  chiefly  deal.  The 
travellers  write  to  the  eflfect  that  everyone  ought  to  see 
the  theatres  kept  up  for  comedies,  bears,  bulls,  dogs, 
and  cock-fights:  "in  all  these  places  fine  tragedies 
and  comedies  are  played,  and  the  beast-fights  are 
agreeable  spectacles :  and  there  are  men  and  women 
who  for  a  penny  will  bring  one  tobacco  and  beer.'* 


V 

But  we  must  return  to  the  woodlands  of  Arden  and 
Shakespeare's  own  knowledge  of  the  hunter's  craft. 
One  may  notice  how  Prince  Hal  uses  a  technical 
phrase  in  rating  Bardolph :  "O  villain,  thou  stolest  a 
cup  of  sack  eighteen  years  ago,  and  wert  taken  with 
the  manner."^     To  be  taken   with  the  manner,   or 

*  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor ^  i.  i,  91-2,  98-9.  '  Ibid,,  307. 

•  Henry  V.,  iii.  7,  159.        *  Ibid.,  153-5.         •  i  Henry  IV,,  ii.  4,  345-7. 


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SHAKESPEARE  AND  THE  CHACE      169 

'^  mainour,"  meant  that  a  trespasser  was  caught  in  an 
offence  against  the  vert  or  venison  of  the  forest.  With 
respect  to  the  deer  in  particular,  it  implied  that  the 
offender  was  guilty  in  woodland  language  of  ''back- 
bare,  bloody-hand,  or  dog-draw  or  stable-stand." 
Dog-draw  was  the  charge  when  a  man  had  shot  at  a 
deer  and  had  a  dog  drawing  after  the  wounded  game. 
The  last-named  offence  consisted  in  standing  by  a  tree 
with  bow  bent  or  greyhounds  in  leash.^ 

The  legitimate  way  of  shooting  from  the  stand  is 
described  in  the  last  part  of  Henry  VI.,  where  Sinklow 
and  Humphrey  come  on  dressed  as  Keepers  of  a  Chace 
with  cross-bows  in  hand.  Their  talk  shows  them  not 
to  have  been  much  better  shots  than  the  sportsmen 
in  As  You  Like  It^  who,  as  the  Duke  said,  gored  the 
haunches  of  the  dappled  fools  with  their  fork-headed 
arrows.^  Sinklow,  who  appears  by  the  First  Folio  to 
have  taken  the  part  of  the  Head-keeper,  proposes  that 
they  shall  both  shoot  at  the  same  buck : 

**  And  in  this  covert  will  we  make  our  stand. 
Culling  the  principal  of  all  the  deer."  * 

**That  cannot  be,"  says  the  other,  **the  noise  of  thy 
cross-bow  will  scare  the  herd  " ;  and  so  they  talk  till 
the  quondam  King  comes  in,  **a  deer  whose  skin  is  a 
keeper's  fee."* 

We  turn  to  the  gayer  scene  in  Love's  Labour^ s  Losty 
when  the  Princess  gained  such  "credit  in  the  shoot. "^ 

"Then,  forester,  my  friend,  where  is  the  bush 
That  we  must  stand  and  play  the  murderer  in  ?  "  ^ 

We  know  how  the  poor  little  animal  was  knocked  over, 
and  what  a  discussion  arose  about  his  age.^  The  argu- 
ment seems  to  be  taken  from  Manwood,  whose  firstsketch 
of  a  work  on  Forest  Law  was  passing  about  in  manuscript 

*  Manwood,  «.^.,  stib  Hunting,         •  As  You  Like  It^  iL  i,  22-5. 

*  3  Henry  VL,  iii.  i,  3-7.  *  Ibid,,  22-3. 

*  Love's  Labour^ s  Losty  iv.  i,  26.        •  Ibid.,  7,  8.        '  Ibid,,  iv.  sc.  2. 


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I70  NATURAL  HISTORY 

long  before  the  first  appearance  of  his  treatise  in  1598. 
As  concerning  Beasts  of  Chace,  said  the  learned 
Serjeant,  the  Buck,  being  the  first,  is  called  as 
foUoweth :  the  fiirst  year  a  Fawn,  the  second  year  a 
Pricket,  the  third  a  Sorel,  the  fourth  year  a  Sore,  the 
fifth  year  a  Buck  of  the  first  head,  the  sixth  a  Buck 
or  a  Great  Buck.*  "Truly,  Master  Holofernes,  the 
epithets  are  sweetly  varied,  like  a  scholar  at  the  least : 
but,  sir,  I  assure  ye,  it  was  a  buck  of  the  first  head." 
"Sir  Nathaniel,"  says  the  Schoolmaster,  ^^Hatulcredo^^ ; 
but  honest  Dull,  the  constable,  breaks  in,  "Twas  not  a 
Hand  credo;  'twas  a  pricket";^  and  again,  later  on,  he 
insists  again  that  it  was  a  pricket  that  the  Princess  had 
killed.^  **  Will  you  hear  an  extemporal  epitaph  on  the 
death  of  the  deer?  And,  to  humour  the  ignorant,  call  I 
the  deer  the  princess  killed  a  pricket."*  The  solemn 
sentences  of  Manwood  are  built  into  a  rude  kind  of 
rhyme : — 

''The  preyful  princess  pierced  and  prick'd  a  pretty  pleasing 
pricket ; 
Some  say  a  sore ;  but  not  a  sore,  till  now  made  sore 
with  shooting. 
The  dogs  did  yell :  put  L  to  sore,  then  sorel  jumps  from 
thicket ; 
Or  pricket,  sore,  or  else  sorel ;  the  people  fall  a-hoodng. 
If  sore  be  sore,  then  L  to  sore  makes  fifty  sores,  one  sorel, 
Of  one  sore  I  an  hundred  make  by  adding  but  one  more 
L." 

It  has  been  said  that  Shakespeare  can  have  had  little 
affection  for  dogs,  and  allows  his  characters  to  rate  them 
as  curs  and  mongrels  on  very  slight  provocation,  as  if 
they  were  all  **  creatures  vile,"  and  dogs  of  no  esteem. 
We  may  enter  a  protest  in  favour  of  ''  Crab  my  dog  "  ;  * 
and  one  might  point  out  that  old  Lear  talked  of  the 
house-pets  with  some  slight  show  of  affection:  "the 

^  Manwood,  u,s,^  sub  Buck,  '  Love's  Labou/s  Lost^  iv.  2,  8-12. 

'  IbicLf  21-2.  *  Ibid,t  50-3,  et  seqq. 

*  Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona^  ii.  3  ;  iv.  4. 


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DOGS   IN  SHAKESPEARE  171 

little  dogs  and  all,  Tray,  Blanch,  and  Sweet-heart,  see, 
they  bark  at  me  I  "^  But  whether  Shakespeare's  likings 
extended  to  **  Lady,  the  brach,"  ^  and  the  toy-terriers,  or 
was  confined  to  the  generous  hound,  we  must  acknow- 
ledge that  no  writer  of  that  time  surpassed  him  in 
knowledge  of  the  subject.  In  the  year  1536,  Dr.  Caius 
published  his  Latin  tract  about  British  Dogs  in  the  form 
of  a  letter  to  Gesner  the  naturalist.^  There  are  passages 
in  the  work,  chiefly  in  the  notices  of  foreign  breeds, 
which  may  be  useful  to  students  of  Shakespeare :  such, 
for  instance,  is  his  account  of  the  Maltese  lapdogs, 
which  might,  he  thought,  be  carried  for  warmth,  instead 
of  a  mufif  or  waistcoat ;  and  such  is  his  picture  of  the 
Icelandic  and  Pomeranian  dogs  with  face  and  body  all 
covered  with  hair.  We  hear  something  about  these 
last  when  the  ruffians  fall  out  in  Henry  F. :  **  Pish  ! " 
said  Nym.  "  Pish  for  thee,  Iceland  dog  !  thou  prick- 
ear'd  cur  of  Iceland!"*  is  the  retort  of  Ancient  Pistol. 
Dr.  Caius  divided  the  British  varieties  into  three 
principal  kinds. '^  He  takes  first  the  generous  breeds 
used  in  the  chace.  The  harrier  comes  first,  he  says ;  but 
he  used  the  word  in  a  wide  sense,  for  his  ** harriers" 
will  hunt  the  fox,  the  red  and  fallow  deer,  the  badger, 
and  the  marten  ;  next  come  terriers,  and  then  the  blood- 
hound, flap-eared  and  with  lips  in  deep  flews.  Among 
the  bloodhounds  he  places  otter-hounds  and  ordinary 
fox-hounds,  and  is  particular  to  keep  the  word  **  brach  " 
for  the  female,  contrary  to  the  usage  adopted  by 
Shakespeare.  Next  we  come  to  the  greyhound  class, 
in  which  may  be  set  lym-hounds*  and  gaze-hounds, 

^  King  Leaty  uL  6,  65-6. 

*  7rf.,  i.  4,  125.     Also  I  Henry  /Fl,  iii.  i,  24a 

'  English  translation  (1576)  by  Abiaham  Fleming,  printed  in  Arber's 
English  Gamery  iii.  225-68. 

*  Henry  K.,  ii.  i,  43-4. 

'  The  tract  is  divided  into  five  sections;  viz.  §§i~3»  Gentle  dogs, 
serving  the  game;  §4,  Homely  dogs,  apt  for  sundry  necessary  uses; 
§  5,  Currish  dogs,  meet  for  many  toys. 

*  "  Leviner  or  Lyemmer;  in  Latin,  Lararius.'* 


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172  NATURAL  HISTORY 

Irish  deer-hounds,  lurchers,  and  the  miniature  tumblers. 
Of  the  dogs  used  in  fowling  we  have  hern-dogs,  and 
spaniels,  setters,  and  water-spaniels  or  retrievers,  which 
used  to  be  shaved  like  French  poodles.  His  second 
class  takes  in  the  rustic  sheep-dogs  and  house-dogs,  the 
mastifif,  sometimes  used  in  hunting  ''wild  swine,"  the 
butcher's  bull-dog,  the  useful  creatures  that  drew  water, 
pulled  little  carts,  or  carried  the  tinker's  stock,  and  the 
farmer's  dog,  that  barks  at  beggars,  with  other  "  defend- 
ing dogs  " ;  he  even  takes  care  to  describe  the  **  moon- 
dog,"  which  does  nothing  but  **  bay  the  moon."  ^  The 
third  and  last  class  takes  in  the  useful  turnspits  and 
dancing-dogs,  with  a  crowd  of  mongrels  of  all  kinds. 
With  this  curious  list  we  should  compare  the  catalogue 
of  dogs  in  Macbeth,  adding  for  the  sake  of  completeness 
the  bob-tail  tyke  and  trundletail,  from  Edgar's  song  in 
King  Lear.  *  **  We  are  men,  my  liege,"  says  the  first 
murderer  in  Macbeth^  and  this  is  the  tyrant's  reply : — 

"Ay,  in  the  catalogue  ye  go  for  men ; 
As  hounds  and  greyhounds,  mongrels,  spaniels,  curs, 
Shoughs,  water-rugs  and  demi-wolves  are  clept 
All  by  the  name  of  dogs  :  the  valued  file 
Distinguishes  the  swift,  the  slow,  the  subtle, 
The  housekeeper,  the  hunter,  every  one 
According  to  the  gift  which  bounteous  nature 
Hath  in  him  closed,  whereby  he  does  receive 
Particular  addition,  from  the  bill 
That  writes  them  all  alike."* 

There  are  hunting  scenes  in  Venus  and  Adonis  and 
in  the  induction  to  The  Taming  of  the  Shrew  which  are 
so  lifelike,  that  one  might  almost  describe  the  look  of 
the  pack  and  name  the  country  where  it  was  running. 
The  very  names  of  the  hounds  will  in  some  cases  indi- 

^  ''He  doth  nothing'  else  but  watch  and  ward  at  an  ynche,  wasting  the 
wearisome  night  season  without  slumbering  or  sleeping;  bawing*  and 
wawing-  at  the  moon  (that  I  may  use  the  word  of  Nonius) ;  a  quality  in 
mine  opinion  strang'e  to  consider." 

*  King  Leaty  iii.  6,  69-^  '  Macbeth^  iii.  i,  91-101. 


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i 


SHAKESPEAKE'&  HUNTING  SCENES    173 

cate  their  breed,  and  the  sound  of  their  ''gallant 
chiding  "  ;  ^  and  we  shall  find,  as  in  the  hunt  described 
by  Sidney  in  the  Arcadia^  that  ''their  cry  was  com- 
posed of  so  well  sorted  mouths,  that  any  man  would 
perceive  therein  some  kind  of  proportion,  but  the 
skilful  woodmen  did  find  a  musick/'^ 

"  Every  region  near 
Seemed  all  one  mutual  cry,"* 

says  the  Amazon  Queen,  who  had  bayed  the  bear  with 
Hercules  and  Cadmus.  "The  Wood,"  wrote  Sidney, 
"seemed  to  conspire  with  them  against  his  own  citizens, 
dispensing  their  noise  through  all  his  quarters,  and 
even  the  Nymph  Echo  left  to  bewail  the  loss  of  Nar- 
cissus, and  became  a  hunter."*  Shakespeare  uses  the 
same  image  in  his  description  of  the  fate  of  "poor 
Wat,"»  or  "wily  Wat,"  or  "gentle  Wat  with  long 
ears,"  as  various  ballad-writers  had  called  him.  The 
hunted  hare  has  "cranks  and  crosses  with  a  thousand 
doubles";  his  "many  musets"  "are  like  a  labyrinth  to 
amaze  his  foes " ;  he  runs  among  the  sheep  and  the 
deer,  and  the  banks  "where  earth-delving  conies 
keep,"  and  the  scent-snuffing  hounds  run  silent, 

"  till  they  have  singled 
With  much  ado  the  cold  fault  cleanly  out ; 
Then  do  they  spend  their  mouths  :  Echo  replies, 
As  if  another  chase  were  in  the  skies."* 

"Tender  well  my  hounds,"  the  hunting  lord  calls  out 
to  his  whip^  on  Wilmcote  Heath : 

"  Brach  Merriman,  the  poor  cur  is  emboss'd  ; 
And  couple  Clowder  with  the  deep-mouthed  brach.  "^ 

He  uses  a  word  more  appropriate  to  a  blown  stag  or 
wild-boar  than  to  a  footsore  hound ;  the  old  sporting 

*  Midsummer  Night* s  Dream t  iv.  i,  119. 
'  ArcadiUf  bk.  i.  (lotb  ed.,  1655,  p.  54). 

•  Midsummer  Night* s  Dreamt  iv.  i,  120-1.  *  Arcadia^  u.s. 
»  Venus  and  Adonis t  697.  '  Ibid^  679-96. 
'  Taming  of  the  Shrew^  Ind.  i,  16-18. 


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174  NATURAL  HISTORY 

books  tell  us  that  the  deer  is  said  to  be  ^'embossed" 
when  he  creeps  into  holes  and  lies  down,  or  when 
he  runs  ^'stifFand  lumbering/'  and  slavers  and  foams 
at  the  mouth,  with  other  signs  of  fatigue.  Looking 
through  the  park  at  Wilmcote  with  the  ** hunting  lord" 
and  his  whips,  we  notice  that  "Silver"  is  especially 
praised : — 

**  Saw'st  thou  not,  boy,  how  Silver  made  it  good, 
At  the  hedge-comer,  in  the  coldest  fault  ?  "  * 

** Silver"  appears  again  in  The  Tempest^  when  Ariel 
hunts  the  rascals  with  his  visionary  pack. 

**  Silver!  there  it  goes.  Silver  I     Fury,  Fury!  there.  Tyrant, 
there!"* 

These  latter  we  take  as  representing  the  black,  or 
black-and-tan  hounds,  like  the  western  slow-hounds, 
which  were  valued  not  only  for  their  keen  scent,  but 
for  giving  tongue  in  a  deep,  bell-like  note :  as  when 
the  Goddess  knows  that  some  rough  beast  is  found, 
from  the  cry  remaining  in  one  place,  and  finds  a 
favourite  hound  of  Adonis  howling  by  himself  in  a 
brake.     When  he  has  ceased  his  din, 

'*  Another  fiap-mouth'd  mourner,  black  and  grim, 
Against  the  welkin  volleys  out  his  voice  ; 
Another  and  another  answer  him."* 

But  "Silver"  was,  of  course,  one  of  the  slender,  short 
hounds,  white  in  colour,  with  black  ears  and  a  black 
spot  on  the  back,  which  were  the  direct  descendants  of 
the  old  milk-white  English  talbot.  The  rule  for  the 
Midland  counties,  according  to  the  School  of  Recreation, 
was  to  use  a  middle-sized  hound,  "of  a  more  nimble 
Composure  than"  the  slow-hound  "and  fitter  for 
Chase."  For  strength  of  cry  the  huntsman  was  told 
to   choose    "  the    Loud    Clanging   (redoubling   as    it 

^  Ibid,^  i9-2a  ^  Tempest,  iv.  i,  257-8. 

'  Venus  and  Adonis^  920-2. 


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VARIETIES  OF  HOUNDS  175 

were)  Mouth,  and  to  this  put  the  roarinjg^,  spending, 
and  whining  Mouth,  which  will  be  loud,  smart,  and 
pleasant " ;  and  such,  said  the  writer,  were  the  Wor- 
cestershire packs  in  his  day.  Some  men  loved  most 
to  watch  **  cunning  hunting  "  ;  others  thought  of  little 
but  the  ''musical  discord"  and  ''sweet  thunder"  of 
the  hounds.  For  sweetness  of  cry  they  "  compounded 
the  kennel"  of  a  few  large  hounds  "of  deep  solemn 
Mouths,  and  swift  in  spending,  as  the  Base  in  the 
Consort " ;  then  for  a  Counter-tenor,  twice  as  many 
"roaring,  loud,  ringing  Mouths";  add  some  "hollow 
plain,  sweet  Mouths  "  for  the  Mean  ;  and  so  shall  your 
Cry  be  perfect.  Moreover,  let  the  deep-mouthed 
hounds  be  swift  of  their  kind,  the  middle-sized  ones 
rather  slow,  like  "  Echo  "  in  the  Wilmcote  pack ;  when 
"  Belman "  is  praised  as  better  than  "Silver,"  the 
lord  cries,  "Thou  art  a  fool :  if  Echo  were  as  fleet  I 
would  esteem  him  worth  a  dozen  such."^  Lastly,  the 
white,  sweet-tongued  hounds  were  to  be  as  slender  and 
short-legged  as  might  be ;  and  by  taking  care  of  these 
points,  says  the  instructor,  the  pack  will  be  made  to 
"  run  even  together."* 

In  Cheshire  and  some  other  districts,  where  the  coun- 
try was  nearly  covered  with  woods,  it  was  necessary 
to  use  large  and  heavy  hounds,  with  hardly  any  im- 
provement upon  the  old  slow-hound  stock  from  which 
they  were  originally  derived.  This  seems  to  be  the 
breed  which  Theseus  praised  to  Hippolyta  when  they 
rode  after  a  great  hart  on  the  first  morning  in  May. 
We  see  the  influence  of  Chaucer  in  the  reference  to 
Cadmus  and  to  the  joy  of  Duke  Theseus  in  his  hounds. 
Hunting,  as  the  Knight's  Tale  has  it,  was  "all  his 
joye  and  appetyt "  ; '  and  Shakespeare  seems  to  rejoice 

*  Taming  of  the  Shrew,  Ind.  i,  22-7. 

«  77^  School  of  Recreation;  or,  a  Guide  to  the  Most  Ingenious  Exercises 
of  Hunting,  etc.,  by  R.  H.,  1732,  pp.  9-ii, 
'  Chaucer,  Knightes  Tale,  822  \Cant  Tales,  A,  1680]. 


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176  NATURAL  HISTORY 

with  hinii  as  he  traces  the  pedigree  from  the  famous 
pack  that  "  found  the  bear  "  for  Hercules : — 

**  My  hounds  are  bred  out  of  the  Spartan  kind, 
So  flew'd,  30  sanded,  and  their  heads  are  hung 
With  ears,  that  sweep  away  the  morning  dew  ; 
Crook-knee'd,  and  dewlapp'd  like  Thessalian  bulls  ; 
Slow  in  pursuit,  but  match'd  in  mouth  like  bells, 
Each  under  each."  ^ 

If  we  look  at  Robert  Greene's  Menaphon^  we  shall 
find  a  youngster  of  Thessaly  debating  with  the  Ar- 
cadian shepherds.  They  are  talking  of  a  ewe,  ^*  whose 
fleece  was  as  white  as  the  hairs  that  grow  on  father 
Boreas'  chin,  or  as  the  dangling  dewlap  of  the  silver 
bull,"*  On  so  slight  a  framework  of  materials  Shake- 
speare raised  his  marvellous  work ;  and  so  easily  were 
all  kinds  of  knowledge  taken  up  by  him,  that  we  might 
easily  believe,  in  reference  to  the  passage  quoted  above, 
that  he  used  the  old  anecdote  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  which 
was  preserved  by  Anthony  Wood.  Richard  Edwards, 
we  are  told,  produced  his  Palamon  and  Any te  in  1566,* 
though  the  comedy  was  not  published  till  1585.  The 
comedy  was  acted  before  the  Queen,  in  Christchurch 
Hall,  at  Oxford.  In  the  play  was  acted  a  cry  of 
hounds  in  the  '*  quadrant,"  **upon  the  train  of  a  fox," 
during  the  hunting  of  Theseus,  **with  which  the  young 
scholars  who  stood  in  the  windows  were  so  much  taken 
(supposing  it  was  real)  that  they  cried  put,  *  Now  now 
— there  there — he's  caught,  he's  caught.'  All  which 
the  Queen  merrily  beholding  said,  *  O  excellent  1  those 
boys  in  very  troth  are  ready  to  leap  out  of  the  windows 
to  follow  the  hounds  1 ' "  * 

^  Midsummer  Nighfs  Dreamy  iv.  i,  123-8. 
'  Greene,  Menapkon,  u.s,,  p.  74. 

'  Collier,  Annals,  i.  191  (ed.  1831),  gives  date  September  3rd,  1566. 
*  Anthony  Wood,  Hist  and  Ant,  of  the  University  of  Oxford,  ed. 
J.  Gutch,  1796,  ii.  160. 


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LANDMARKS  ON  THE  STRATFORD 
ROAD  AND  IN  LONDON 

1586-1616 


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i8o    LANDMARKS  ON  STRATFORD  ROAD 

clever  and  forward  in  his  Latin,  and  did  he  not  after- 
wards serve  in  the  shop  where  Mrs.  Mary  Shakespeare 
dealt  for  her  groceries  ?  Malone  supposed  that  Richard 
or  his  father,  Adrian  Quiney,  would  have  supplied 
young  Shakespeare  with  an  introduction  to  Mr. 
Bartholomew  Quiney,  who  kept  a  draper's  store  near 
the  carved  stone  conduit  in  Fleet  Street,  So  far  as 
we  know,  however,  there  was  no  connection  between 
the  Stratford  tradesman  and  the  London  merchant, 
except,  indeed,  that  they  may  both  have  derived  their 
descent  from  the  stock  of  Quineys  in  the  Isle  of  Man. 
Malone  returns  to  the  charge  with  a  second  argu- 
ment. Richard  Field,  the  son  of  Mr.  Field,  a  tanner 
at  Stratford,  had  established  himself  as  a  printer 
in  London.  He  it  was  who  brought  out  Venus  and 
Adonis  in  1593,  and  Lucrece  in  the  following  year; 
his  friend  and  collaborator,  Harrison,  published  the 
little  books  at  the  sign  of  the  "White  Greyhound," 
near  St.  Paul's.  Are  we  to  suppose,  suggests  Malone, 
that  Mr.  Richard  Field  would  not  have  rescued 
Shakespeare  from  poverty,  or  would  have  allowed  "an 
amiable  and  worthy  youth  "  to  remain  in  so  degraded 
a  state  ?  He  is  referring,  of  course,  to  the  story  about 
holding  the  horses.  It  was  for  Malone  to  find  evi- 
dence for  his  own  suggestion.  We  can  neither  affirm 
nor  deny  that  the  poet  brought  a  letter  of  introduction 
to  the  printer.  The  critic,  himself  rather  preferred  the 
notion  that  Shakespeare's  movements  were  governed 
by  his  having  formed  some  acquaintance  with  Lord 
Warwick's  or  Lord  Leicester's  servants,  or  the  Queen's 
company  of  comedians.  "It  is,  I  think,  much  more 
probable  that  his  own  lively  disposition  made  him 
acquainted  with  some  of  the  principal  performers  who 
visited  Stratford,  the  elder  Burbage,  or  Knell,  or 
Bentley."  James  Burbage  was  the  builder  and  manager 
of  the  chief  London  theatre,  where  Lord  Leicester's 
players  were  then  engaged.    Shakespeare,  we  are  told, 


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SHAKESPEARE'S  JOURNEY  TO  LONDON  i8i 

might  have  enrolled  himself  among  the  players,  and 
may  have  arrived  at  his  new  home  in  company  with  the 
"tragedians  of  the  City." 

Malone  also  said  that  the  Sadlers  would  have  been 
sure  to  help  a  friend.  Hamnet  Sadler,  as  Mr.  Hunter 
showed,  was  connected  with  Hamlet  Smith,  whose 
sister  Helen  was  settled  in  London.^  She  was  married 
to  Mr.  Stephen  Scudamore,  otherwise  Skidmore,  a 
vintner  at  St.  Stephen's,  Coleman  Street.  Mr.  Scuda- 
more was  rich  himself,  and  was  said  to  be  related  to 
Sir  Clement  Scudamore,  one  of  the  wealthiest  of  the 
City  merchants.  But,  unfortunately  for  the  theory,  it 
is  plain  from  the  Vintners'  records  that  *' Stephen 
Skidmore"  died  in  1584,  leaving  property  at  St. 
Anne's,  Blackfriars,  to  his  Company  on  various  chari- 
table trusts.  Mr.  Hunter  also  examined  the  story  of 
John  Sadler,  who  became  partner  with  Richard  Quiney 
in  the  grocer's  shop  at  Bucklersbury.*  John  Sadler 
seems  to  have  been  a  nephew  of  Hamnet  and  Judith. 
His  father  had  become  impoverished  by  good  living 
and  hospitality,  and  he  hoped  to  restore  the  family  by 
marrying  his  son  John  to  a  good  fortune.  Hunter 
found  the  details  in  a  book,  published  in  1690,  upon 
<*The  Holy  Life  of  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Walker,  late  wife 
of  A.  W[alker],  d.d.,  rector  of  Fyfield  in  Essex." 
Mrs.  Walker,  he  says,  was  John  Sadler's  daughter, 
and  a  great  part  of  the  book  consists  of  extracts  "  from 
her  old  manuscript  remains."*  Young  John  was 
romantic,  or  attached  elsewhere,  and  contrived  to 
make  his  escape.  His  father,  as  Mrs.  Walker  told  the 
story,  "provided  him  good  clothes,  a  good  horse,  and 
money  in  his  purse,  and  sent  him  to  make  his  ad- 
dresses to  the  gentlewoman  in  the  country.  But  he, 
considering  well  how  difficult  a  married  condition  was 

^  Joseph  Hunter,  F.s.A.y  New  lUustrations  of  the  Life,  etc,  o/ ShaJke- 
speare,  1845,  <•  5^*  ^^^^  ^^^  authority  was  the  will  of  Helen  Scudamore, 
1606.  ■  Ibid,,  69.  '  Ibid.,  69-70,  note. 


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i82    LANDMARKS   ON   STRATFORD   ROAD 

like  to  prove,  instead  of  going  awooing  joined  himself 
to  the  carrier  and  came  to  London,  where  he  had  never 
been  before,  and  sold  his  horse  in  Smithfield."  If  we 
follow  the  teaching  of  Sir  John  Falstafif,  one  would 
buy  a  rogue  like  Bardolph  at  Paul's,  and  he  would 
buy  his  master  a  nag  on  a  Friday  morning  at  Smith- 
field  Market ;  if  he  could  add  a  wife  from  Bankside, 
then  were  one  **  manned,  horsed,  and  wived."  ^ 

John  Sadler  ha^  no  acquaintance  in  London  **to 
recommend  or  assist  him."  We  may  observe  that 
Mrs.  Helen  Scudamore  did  not  die  before  1606;  but 
her  relationship  to  the  young  adventurer  may  have 
been  too  remote  for  his  purpose.  He  wandered  from 
street  to  street  and  house  to  house,  asking  if  they 
wanted  an  apprentice;  **and  though  he  met  with 
many  discouraging  scorns  and  a  thousand  denials,  he 
went  till  he  light  on  Mr,  Brooksbank,  a  grocer  in 
Bucklersbury."* 

n 

THE  ROAD  TO  LONDON— ROLLRIGHT  STONES — GRENDON  UNDER- 
WOOD—AYLESBURY  TO   UXBRIDGE. 

Shakespeare,  it  has  been  suggested,  may  have  gone 
through  a  similar  experience.  It  is  not  improbable,  at 
any  rate,  that  he  would  hang  on  to  the  Stratford 
carriers  for  security  against  the  Clerks  of  St.  Nicholas, 
like  the  rich  yeoman  in  Henry  IV.  j  and  the  travellers 
who  breakfasted  off  eggs  and  butter."  The  road  by 
which  he  journeyed  to  London  has  been  described  by 
many  travellers  before  and  since  his  day.  The  direct 
way  lay  S.S.E,  of  Stratford,  through  Shipston-on- 
Stour.      After  passing   through  this  almost  isolated 

*  2  Henry  /K,  i.  2,  58-61.  See  Nares'  Glossary,  ed  Halliwell  and 
Wright,  5,v.  PAUL'S,  ST.  ■  Hunter,  u.s. 

•  I  Henry  /K.,  ii.  i.  An  alternative  foute  to  the  road  hereafter  de- 
scribed lay  throug^h  Kineton  and  Banbury,  joining^  the  road  from  Shipston 
and  Chipping'  Norton  at  Bicester. 


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ROLLRIGHT  STONES  183 

piece  of  Worcestershire,  it  recrossed  the  Stour  into 
the  southern  corner  of  Warwickshire,  and  finally  left 
the  county  for  Oxfordshire  a  little  beyond  Long 
Compton.  Just  across  the  border,  in  Little  RoUright 
parish,  stood  the  famous  stone-circle  known  as  '^  Roll- 
rich  stones."  Mr.  Loveday,  to  whose  English  travels 
in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  we  already 
have  referred,^  on  his  way  from  Oxford  to  Stratford, 
visited  the  stones.  He  and  his  companions  went 
down  hill  from  Chipping  Norton  to  Long  Comp- 
ton, a  ^' truly  long  village,"  and  made  a  detour  to 
the  circle.  This,  he  writes,  is  "of  no  very  regular 
figure  " ;  the  tallest  of  the  stones  was  about  seven  feet 
high,  the  others  not  above  four  and  a  half  feet.  A 
single  stone  on  the  other  side  of  the  hedge  in  War* 
wickshire,  nine  feet  high  and  upwards,  was  called  the 
King-stone,  and  was  believed  to  mark  the  spot  where 
Rollo  the  Norwegian  had  been  crowned.  About  a  fur- 
long to  the  east  were  five  other  large  stones  called  the 
Knights  which  stood  "rounding,  as  close  together  as 
can  be  without  touching."*  Camden  had  given  his 
high  authority  to  the  tradition  about  Rollo,  which  was 
in  truth  almost  as  absurd  as  the  theory  of  the  rustics 
in  Shakespeare's  day  who  believed  that  the  monument 
consisted  of  men  turned  into  stones,  and  gave  the 
name  of  King  to  the  tallest,  "  because  he  should  have 
beene  King  of  England  (forsooth)  if  he  had  once 
seene  Lcmg  Compton^  a  little  towne  so  called  lying 
beneath,  and  which  a  man,  if  he  go  some  few  pases 
forward,  may  see.''* 

*  Diary  of  a  Tour  in  1782,  made  by  John  Loveday  of  Caversham,  ed. 
J.  E.  T.  Loveday,  1890,  p.  4. 

'  Hence  known  as  the  "Whispering  Circle"  (Virtue's  National 
GoMHieer^  iii.  339),  or  tiie  "  Whispering  Knights "  (Murray's  Warwick-, 
shirty  i899>  p.  102.) 

»  Camden,  Britannia^  tr.  Holland,  1610,  p.  374.  He  continues, 
"  Other  five  standing  at  the  other  side,  touching  as  it  were,  one  another, 
they  imagine  to  have  beene  Knights  mounted  on  horsebacke ;  and  the 
rest  the  army."   He  connected  the  RoUo  tradition  with  the  battle  between 


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i84    LANDMARKS   ON  STRATFORD   ROAD 

From  Long  Compton  it  was  a  distance  of  four  miles 
into  Chipping  Norton,  where  Mr.  Loveday  on  his  way 
northward  stayed  at  the  '*  Talbot,"  The  town,  we  are 
told,  stands  on  the  side  of  a  somewhat  steep  hilL  The 
church  is  a  large  building  in  the  bottom ;  the  middle 
aisle  is  almost  all  window ;  there  was  a  charnel-house 
at  the  north-east  end  of  the  church  like  the  famous 
bonehouse  at  Stratford,  which  extended  under  the  aisle 
and  was  entered  from  outside.  Thence  the  road  crossed 
Oxfordshire,  keeping  slightly  to  the  south-east  to 
Bicester.  In  Church-Enstone  parish,  some  five  miles 
out  of  Chipping  Norton,  a  road  forked  oflF  S.S.E.  to 
Woodstock  and  Oxford ;  this,  in  its  turn,  divided  into 
branches  in  Kiddington  parish,  half-way  to  Woodstock. 
The  left-hand  branch  kept  to  the  east  of  Woodstock, 
and  joined  the  direct  road  from  Oxford  to  London, 
near  Wheatley. 

The  main  road  passed  into  Buckinghamshire  a  few 
miles  beyond  Bicester.  Two  or  three  miles  across  the 
border,  on  a  side  road,  was  a  village  which  a  slight 
tradition  connects  with  the  name  of  Shakespeare. 
Aubrey,  in  his  casual  notes  on  Shakespeare's  life, 
writes:  "The  humour  of  .  .  .  the  constable,  in  Mid- 
somemighfs  Dreamer  he  happened  to  take  at  Grendon 
in  Bucks — I  thinke  it  was  Midsomer  night  that  he 
happened  to  lye  there — ^which  is  the  roade  from  London 
to  Stratford,  and  there  was  living  that  constable  about 
1642,  when  I  first  came  to  Oxon :  Mr.  Josias  Howe 
is  of  that  parish,  and  knew  him."*     The  Rev.  Josias 

Eng-ltsh  and  Danes  at  Hook  Norton  in  917,  and  the  subsequent  battle 
at  the  Four-Shire-Stone  not  far  distant.  Long^  Compton  is  situated 
about  midway  between  these  two  battlefields. 

*  Aubrey,  Brief  Livesy  ed.  Clark,  1898,  ii.  226  (s.v,  Shakespear).  In 
connection  with  Josias  Howe,  we  may  notice  Aubrey's  story  in  his  notes 
on  Dr.  Ralph  Kettell,  President  of  Trinity  (id.,  ii.  23):  "Mris.  Howe, 
of  Grendon" — doubtless  Josias'  mother — ''sent  him  (the  president)  a 
present  of  hippocris,  and  some  fine  cheese-cakes,  by  a  plain  countrey 
fellow,  her  servant  The  Dr.  tastes  the  wine : — '  What,'  sayd  he,  '  didst 
thou  take  this  drinke  out  of  a  ditch?'  and  when  he  saw  the  cheese- 


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GRENDON   UNDERWOOD  185 

Howe  was  a  tutor  at  Trinity  College,  where  he  had 
been  elected  to  a  fellowship  in  1637,  about  five  years 
before  Aubrey  came  up.  He  was  a  native  of  Grendon 
Underwood.  The  name  of  the  village  is  sometimes 
written  Crendon,  and  care  should  be  taken  not  to 
confuse  it  with  Long  Crendon,  near  Thame,  which 
lies  a  little  north  of  the  road  from  Aylesbury  to  Oxford, 
and  is  described  in  the  life  of  Anthony  Wood.  The 
rector  of  Grendon,  about  the  time  of  Aubrey's  boy- 
hood, was  the  Rev.  Thomas  Howe,  at  whose  house  the 
tutor  of  Trinity  was  brought  up.  Josias  was  the  rector's 
son,  and  would  know  the  village  well.  He  was  a 
person  of  some  culture  and  authority  on  matters  of 
literature,  having  been  introduced  to  Ben  Jonson,  and 
being  the  friend  of  Denham,  Waller,  and  Shirley. 
When  William  Cartwright's  plays  and  poems  were 
published  in  165 1,  Howe's  commendatory  verses  ap- 
peared in  company  with  those  of  James  Howell,  Henry 
Vaughan  the  Silurist,  and  other  distinguished  Oxford 
men. 

Aubrey  introduces  his  parenthesis  about  **  Mid- 
somer  night"  with  some  hesitation.  The  journey  to 
Stratford  on  Midsummer  Day  would  have  no  relevance 
to  the  title  of  the  play.  It  was  the  first  of  May  when 
Theseus  and  Hippolyta  rode  hunting,  as  everyone  had 
known  since  Chaucer's  day;  and  it  was  only  by  a  magical 
glamour  that  Titania  could  sphere  herself  in  summer 
weather,  and  call  up  pictures  of  the  vintage  and  of  the 
time  of  apricots  and  dew-berries.  *'A  Midsummer 
Night's  Dream"  is  only  a  title  for  a  story  told  on  velvet 
lawns  and  under  the  greenwood  tree.  Just  in  the  same 
way,  a  **  Winter's  Tale"  is  one  that  might  be  told  at 
Christmas  in  the  blaze  of  the  logs,  about  witches  and 

cakes: — 'What  have  we  here,  crinkum,  cranium?*  The  poor  fellow 
stared  on  him,  and  wondered  at  such  a  rough  reception  of  such  a  hand- 
some present ;  but  he  shortly  made  him  amends  with  a  good  dinner  and 
halfe-a-crowne. " 


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i86    LANDMARKS  ON  STRATFORD  ROAD 

ghosts,  and  "sad  stories  of  the  death  of  kings";  as 
Mr.  Booth  speaks,  in  his  preface  to  Diodorus,  of  the 
children  hearing  a  Winter  Tale  **  and  strange  stories  of 
this  brave  Hero  and  that  mighty  Giant,  who  did  wonders 
in  the  Land  of  Utopia."  Aubrey,  at  any  rate,  says 
that  there  was  a  constable,  to  whom  something  hap- 
pened which  appears  again  in  the  story  of  the  **  hempen 
home-spuns  "  playing  their  interlude  at  Athens.  The 
manuscript  is  imperfect,  and  the  story,  such  as  it  was, 
is  defaced.  The  Grendon  people  might  find  allusions 
to  their  church  porch  in  Much  Ado  about  Nothing: 
"Well,  masters,  we  hear  our  charge:  let  us  go  sit  here 
upon  the  church-bench  till  two,  and  then  all  to  bed."^ 
Bernwood  Forest  may  supply  the  original  of  Titania's 
bank  "where  the  wild  thyme  blows."* 

The  taproom  at  the  old  Ship  Inn,  as  we  learn 
from  an  amusing  essay  on  "Shakespeare  in  Bucks," 
may  have  been  frequented  by  the  originals  of  Quince 
the  Carpenter  and  Nick  Bottom,  and  the  two  who 
danced  the  Bergomask.^  The  Grendon  tradition, 
arising  we  know  not  whence,  makes  the  poet  say  that 
there  were  "only  two  people  worth  talking  to  in  the 
place,"  and  that  these  were  the  breeches-maker  and 
the  tinker ;  the  suggestion  is  that  they  were  no  other 

^  Much  Ado  about  Nothings  iii.  3,  94-6W 

^  Midsummer  Nighfs  Dream,  ii.  i,  249.  Camden,  u,s.,  p.  395,  speak- 
ing* of  the  vale  of  Aylesbury,  says  :  ''  It  is  all  naked  and  bare  of  woods, 
unlesse  it  be  on  the  West  side,  where  Among  others  is  Bemewood  whose 
Forresters  sumamed  de  BarstaU  were  famous  in  former  times.  About 
this  forrest  the  yeere  after  Chrisfs  nativity  914,  the  Danes  furiously 
ragged :  and  then  happily  it  was,  that  the  ancient  Burg-h  was  destroied, 
whose  antiquity  Romane  coined  peeces  of  mony  there  found  doe 
testifie ;  which  afterwards  became  the  roiaU  house  of  King  Edward  the 
Confessor.  But  now  it  is  a  Country  Village,  and  in  stead  of  Buri-HiU, 
they  call  it  short,  BriJL"  Brill  is  four  or  five  miles  south  of  Grendon. 
Bicester,  written  by  Camden  "Burcester,"  has  been  supposed  to  derive 
its  name  (Burenceaster,  or  Bemaceaster)  from  its  neighbourhood  to 
Bemwood  Forest  Cf.  with  Camden's  account  of  the  bareness  of  the 
Vale  of  Aylesbury,  Leland's  words  quoted  below,  p^  188. 

•  Midsummer  Nighfs  Dream,  v.  i,  360-1, 


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THE  CONSTABLE   OF  GRENDON       187 

in  the  flesh  than  Robert  Starveling,  the  tailor,  that 
played  Thisbe's  mother,^  and  Tom  Snout,  who  pre- 
sented a  **  sweet  and  lovely  Wall."^  But  then,  for  the 
constable,  we  are  taken  back  to  Miu^h  Ado  about 
Nothing.  Might  not  Dogberry  be  the  man,  it  is  asked, 
with  his  **two  gowns,  and  everything  handsome  about 
him"?*  Dogberry  is  somewhat  too  majestical  to  be 
copied  from  a  rustic  watchman  ;  and  Goodman  Verges 
is  too  old,  and  '' speaks  a  little  off  the  matter."* 
There  is  a  wise  officer  in  Measure  for  Measure  who 
comes  nearer  to  the  point: — 

*'  If  it  please  your  honour,  I  am  the  poor  duke's  constable, 
and  my  name  is  Elbow:  I  do  lean  upon  justice,  sir, 
and  do  bring  in  here  before  your  good  honour  two 
notorious  benefactors."^ 

On  the  whole,  however,  if  there  was  such  an  officer  at 
Grendon  to  whom  the  poet  intended  to  refer,  "the 
most  desartless  man  to  be  constable  "  would  be  either 
Hugh  Otecake  or  George  Seacole,  to  whom  writing 
and  reading  came  by  nature.^  George  Seacole  was 
also  a  well-favoured  man  by  gift  of  fortune.  "  You  are 
thought  here,"  says  Master  Dogberry,  "to  be  the 
most  senseless  and  fit  man  for  the  constable  of  the 
watch ;  therefore  bear  you  the  lantern."  We  know 
nothing  for  certain  about  the  matter.  It  is  just  possible 
that  a  part  of  this  kind  may  have  got  into  the  farces 
constructed  out  of  the  episode  of  Pyramus  and  Thisbe. 
These  popular  versions  would  naturally  be  filled  with 
"gag."  The  droll,  composed  on  this  theme  and 
called  The  Merry  Conceited  Humours  of  Bottom  the 

*  /«?.,  i.  2,  62-3. 

^  I<L,v.  I,  157,  "  I,  one  Snout  by  name,  present  a  wall." 

■  Much  Ado  about  Nothings  v.  2,  88-9.  *  /</,,  iii.  5,  lo-ii. 

•  Measure  for  Measure^  \u  i,  47-50. 

'  Much  Ado  about  Nothings  iii.  3.  Haliiwell-Phillipps,  Outlines^  i. 
189,  remarks  that  unless  the  Grendon  constable  *'  had  attained  an  in- 
credible age  in  the  year  1642,  he  would  have  been  too  young  for  the 
prototype." 


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i88    LANDMARKS  ON   STRATFORD   ROAD 

WeaveTy  was  described  by  Mr.  Halliwell-Phillipps  in 
the  Shakespeare  Society's  Papers;  it  seems  to  have 
been  a  popular  farce  acted  by  small  companies  at 
Bartlemy  Fair  and  country  revels  and  gatherings.^ 

Aylesbury  was  some  nine  miles  further  on.  Leland, 
on  his  way  from  Oxford  into  Warwickshire,  came  by 
way  of  Thame  to  Aylesbury,  and  so  on  to  Bicester, 
Banbury,  and  Warwick.  On  his  way  back  to  London, 
he  writes:  **Or  ever  I  passed  into  Aylesbury,  I  rode 
over  a  little  bridge  of  stone  called  Woman's  Bridge 
.  .  .  and  from  this  bridge  to  the  town  is  a  stone  cause- 
way. .  .  .  The  town's  self  of  Aylesbury  standeth  on 
a  hill  in  respect  of  all  the  ground  thereabout,  a 
three-miles  flat  north  from  Chiltern  Hills.  The  town 
is  neetly  well  builded  with  timber,  and  in  it  is  a 
celebrate  market."'  It  may  be  noticed  that  a  Dane 
called  Jacobsen,  travelling  in  this  country  about  1677, 
mentions  this  market  as  showing  the  largest  oxen  in 
England  ;  his  travels  are  preserved  among  the  manu- 
scripts in  the  Royal  Library  at  Copenhagen.  From 
Aylesbury  it  was  a  distance  of  three  miles  to  Wen- 
dover,  "a  pretty  thorough-fare  town."*  '* There  is  a 
causeway  made  almost  through  to  pass  betwixt  Ayles- 
bury and  it,  else  the  way  in  wet  time  as  in  a  low  stifiF 
clay  were  tedious  and  ill  to  pass."  Wendover,  said 
Leland,  stood  partly  on  the  cli£Fs  of  the  Chilterns  and 
partly  in  the  roots  of  the  hills.  **  Look  as  the  country 
of  the  Vale  of  Aylesbury  for  the  most  part  is  clean 
barren  of  wood,  and  is  champaign ;  so  is  all  the 
Chiltern  well-wooded,  and  full  of  enclosures."    After 

^  Shakespeare  Society's  Papers^  i^-9i  ^v.  130,  note ;  (A  Few  Observa- 
tions on  the  Composition  of  '*  the  Midsummer  Nighfs  Dream.*') 

*  Leland,  Itinerary,  ed.  Heame,  1710-12,  iv.  loa 

'  Leland,  ibitL,  loi.  Five  miles  is  nearer  the  mark,  according'  to  our 
modem  reckoning.  Leland's  mile  corresponds  to  about  a  mile  and  a  half 
in  the  present  day.  Thus,  in  counting  up  distances  from  Warwick,  he 
reckons  the  five  miles  to  Barford  Bridge  as  three,  and  the  eighteen 
miles  to  Banbury  as  twelve. 


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FROM  AYLESBURY  TO  UXBRIDGE     189 

another  stage  of  three  ^  miles  the  travellers  reached 
Great  Missenden,  a  thoroughfare  village  not  yet  digni- 
fied with  a  market;  and  here  was  a  '' pretty"  brick 
chapel ;  and  there  was  in  Leland's  time  a  Priory  of 
Black  Canons  standing  at  the  bottom  of  the  hill 
among  goodly  grounds.*  The  library  of  this  monas- 
tery, consisting  chiefly  of  manuscript  romances  of 
chivalry,  was  purchased  in  Queen  Elizabeth's  reign 
by  Serjeant  Fletewode,  otherwise  Fleetwood,  Recorder 
of  London ;  it  was  sold  by  his  descendant  in  1774 
under  the  name  of  '^  Bibliotheca  Monastico-Flete- 
wodiana."  Little  Missenden  was  hardly  to  be  ranked 
as  a  village,  consisting  as  it  did  at  that  time  of  a  few 
houses  on  each  side  of  the  road.  Amersham  had 
only  one  street,  but  the  buildings  were  larger  and 
newer,  with  clean  timber  and  plaster,  and  it  was  **a 
right  pretty  market-town  on  Friday."*  Uxbridge, 
again,  had  but  one  long  street,  with  excellent  timbered 
houses;  "the  Church,"  we  are  told,  'Ms  almost  a 
mile  out  of  the  town,  in  the  very  highway  to  London  "  5 
and  this  showed  that  it  was  not  a  very  ancient  town.^ 
It  was  not  a  parish  of  itself,  but  was  a  member  of 
Great  Hillingdon,  governed  at  that  time  by  bailiffs 
and  constables  "and  two  tything-men,  who  were  also 
called  headboroughs."  There  was  a  market,  however, 
of  a  considerable  antiquity ;  and  the  townsmen  had 

^  i,e.  five  (see  above). 

*  Tanner,  NotUia  Monastica^  i?^?*  Buckinghamshire,  No.  xvi.  Dug- 
dale,  Monasttam,  ed.  Caley,  Ellis,  and  Bandinel,  1830,  vi.  547.  Camden, 
u,s*f  p.  394:  ''A  religious  house  that  acknowledged  the  UOilies  their 
founders  and  certaine  Gentlemen  sumamed  De  Missenden  their  especiall 
benefactours  upon  a  vow  for  escaping  a  ship-wracke." 

'  Leland,  ibid^  He  gives  the  name  its  old  form,  Hagmondesham,  or 
Homersham.  In  Johnson's  Life  of  Waller^  we  find  the  form  Agmondes- 
ham.  Camden,  u,s.f  p.  594,  has  ''And  then  in  the  Vale  Amersham,  in 
the  Saxon  tongue  Agmundesham,  which  vaunteth  it  selfe  not  for  faire 
buildings,  nor  multitude  of  inhabitants,  but  for  their  late  Lord  Francis 
RusseU  Earle  of  Bedford,  who  being  the  expresse  pateme  of  true 
piety  and  noblenesse  lived  most  decrely  beloved  of  all  good  men." 

^  Leland,  ibid,^  102. 


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190  LANDMARKS  IN  LONDON 

subscribed  to  build  a  chapel-of-ease  as  early  as  the 
reign  of  Henry  VL  An  account  of  the  place  will  be 
found  in  Norden's  Speculum  BritannuB,  first  published 
in  1593.  ^ 

III 

UXBRIDGB  TO  TYBURN — ST.    GILES* 

After  crossing  the  long  bridges  over  the  Colne  and 
passing  through  Uxbridge,  the  road  went  on  to 
Southall  and  the  thoroughfare  at  Acton.  After  pass- 
ing the  Gravel  Pits  at  Kensington,  the  traveller  rode 
under  the  great  brick  wall  of  Hyde  Park,  crossing  the 
Westbourne  Brook,  **  the  original  source  of  the  Ser- 
pentine," *  and  so  to  the  place  of  execution  at  Tyburn, 
and  the  banqueting-house  near  the  Marylebone  Con- 
duits. Mr.  Loftie's  History  of  London  contains  a  full 
account  of  the  changes  by  which  the  odious  name  of 
Tyburn  was  shifted  from  the  village  of  Marylebone  to 
the  triangular  piece  of  waste  land  near  the  Marble 
Arch.»  It  may  be  to  the  shape  of  the  ground  that 
Shakespeare  refers  in  a  passage  of  Love's  Labour^s 
Lost: — 

**  Thou  mak'st  the  triumviry,  the  corner-cap  of  society, 
The  shape  of  Love's  Tyburn  that  hangs  up  simplicity."  * 

That  a  gallows  was  at  one  time  left  standing  there  is 
shown  by  Aubrey's  anecdote  about  Sir  Miles  Fleetwood 
of  Missenden,  who  was  Recorder  of  London  about 
the  accession  of  James  I.  **He  was  a  very  severe 
hanger  of  highwaymen,  so  that  the  fraternity  were 
resolved  to  make  an  example  of  him :    which  they 

*  spec.  Brity  ed.  of  1723,  p.  41 :  "They  have  a  ChappeU  of  Ease 
buylt  by  Ro,  Oliuer,  Thomas  Mandin,  John  Palmer  and  lohn  Barjwrde 
of  the  same  towne.  In  the  sixth  and  twentith  yeere  of  Henry  the  sixt." 
Sub  Vxbridg^  or  Woxbridge. 

"  W.  J.  LofUe,  History  of  London^  1883-4 »  "•  ^7f^ 

•  /((/.,  iL  217-20.  *  Love's  Labours  Lost^  iv.  3,  53-4. 


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TYBURN  AND  MARYLEBONE  CONDUITS  191 

executed  in  this  manner :  They  lay  in  wait  for  him 
not  far  from  Tyburn,  as  he  was  to  come  from  his 
house  at  (Missenden)  in  Bucks ;  had  a  halter  in  readi- 
ness, brought  him  under  the  gallows,  fastened  the 
rope  about  his  neck,  his  hands  tied  behind  him  (and 
servants  bound),  and  then  left  him  to  the  mercy  of  his 
horse,  which  he  called  Ball.  So  he  cried,  '  Ho,  Ball  I 
Ho  I  Ball  I '  and  it  pleased  God  that  his  horse  stood 
still,  till  somebody  came  along,  which  was  half  a 
quarter  of  an  hour  or  more ;  He  ordered  that  this 
horse  should  be  kept  as  long  as  he  would  live,  and  it 
was  so, — he  lived  till  1646."^  Mr.  Loftie  describes 
the  annual  festival  at  which  the  conduits  were  in- 
spected, and  quotes  Strype's  account  of  the  merry- 
making of  the  i8th  of  September,  1562,  when  the 
Lord  Mayor  and  Aldermen  visited  the  Conduit-heads : 
they  hunted  a  hare  before  dinner,  and  after  dinner  a 
fox:  ** there  was  great  cry  for  a  mile,  and  at  length 
the  hounds  killed  him  at  the  end  of  St.  Giles's,  with 
great  hollowing  and  blowing  of  horns  at  his  death."  ^ 
Leland  counts  his  stage  from  Acton  to  **Maryburne 
Brooke  and  Parke"  as  four  miles.  **This  brook,"  he 
writes,  ** runneth  by  the  Park-wall  of  St.  James";* 
he  is  here  referring  to  the  Tyburn  Stream,  which  in 
his  time  ran  across  the  high-road,  passing  from  Mary- 
lebone  Lane  to  a  village  now  included  in  Ma3rfair. 
It  is  now  carried  beneath  the  Green  Park  and  under 
the  front  portion  of  Buckingham  Palace. 

At  Tyburn  Tree  there  was  a  parting  of  the  ways. 
For  Westminster  and  Charing  Cross  one  turned  down 
by  the  fields  and  lanes.  We  have  letters  written  in  the 
next  generation  which  must  be  applicable  to  those 
earlier  times.  Going  through  the  park  was  **as  pretty 
a  piece  of  road  as  ever  a  crow  flew  over."  From  the  lane 
outside  the  wall  there  was  '*a  far  distant  prospect  of 

^  Aubrey,  tt.j,,  i.  253.  *  Loftie,  u.s.y  ii.  22a 

'  Leland,  ».«.,  tv.  102. 


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192  LANDMARKS   IN  LONDON 

hills  and  dales,"  meadows  full  of  cattle,  "little  wilder- 
nesses of  blackbirds  and  nightingales."  Gerard  made 
notes  about  several  rare  plants  which  he  found  not  far 
from  the  roadside,  of  which  a  few  examples  may  be 
mentioned.  The  Great  Burnet,  for  example,  was  found 
by  Gerard  **  upon  the  side  of  a  cawsey  "  leading  out  of 
the  road  between  Paddington  and  Lisson  Green.^  He 
found  plenty  of  Pig-nuts  near  the  Marylebone  Conduit- 
heads.^  His  editor  also  talks  of  seeing  the  Bugloss 
**upon  the  drie  ditch  bankes  about  Pickadilla."*  The 
wild  Clary  grew  in  the  fields  of  Hoi  born,  **  neere  unto 
Graies  Inne,  in  the  high  way  by  the  end  of  a  bricke 
wall " ;  the  purple  Clary  grew  in  his  own  garden.* 
Gerard  found  Rue-leaved  Whitlow-grass  **up  on  the 
bricke  wall  in  Chauncerie  lane,  belonging  to  the  Earle 
of  Southampton,  in  the  suburbes  of  London,  and 
sundrie  other  places."^ 

The  road  ran  through  the  fields  to  Lord  Lisle's  at 
St.  Giles',  where  the  old  Leper  Hospital  had  formerly 
stood  ;  and  here  generations  of  poor  prisoners  had 
rested  on  their  way  to  Tyburn,  and  had  been  allowed 
great  draughts  of  ale  from  St.  Giles'  Bowl,  **  thereof  to 
drink  at  their  pleasure,  as  to  be  their  last  refreshing  in 
this  life."*  The  custom  survived  in  a  squalid  gin- 
drinking  way  until  the  place  of  execution  was  altered. 
''At  the  Dragon  I  take  my  gill,"  was  the  song  of  the 
dismal  highwayman ;  or,  if  he  pleased,  he  might  take 
his  parting-glass  at  the  door  of  the  *'Bow"  or  the 
"  Angel."  ^  St.  Giles  in  the  Fields  was  a  country 
village  when  Shakespeare  came  to  town.  The  map 
attributed  to  Ralph  Aggas  shows  an  open  road  as  far 

*  Gerard,  HerbaUj  1597,  lib,  n,  cap,  403,  p.  889. 
^  Id.  J  lib.  ii.  cap.  415,  p.  906. 

•  /fl?.,  ed.  T.  Johnson,  1633,  lib.  ii.  cap,  283,  p.  799. 

*  Id. J  1597,  lib.  ii.  cap.  255,  p.  628.  ■  Id.,  lib,  ii.  cap.  186,  p.  50a 

•  Stow,  Survey  of  London^  1598,  ed.  H.  Morley,  p.  399. 

'  See  W.  H.  Ainsworth's  lyric  in  Jack  Sheppardy  epoch  i.  chap,  v., 
"Where  Saint  Giles's  church  stands,  once  a  lazar-house  stood." 


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ST.   GILES*  AND  GRAY'S   INN  193 

as  Gray's  Inn,  with  a  few  buildings  about  Holborn 
Bars,  and  down  as  far  as  the  Gateway  in  Gray's  Inn 
Lane.  But  notwithstanding  the  proclamations  against 
building  near  the  City,  the  thin  lines  of  houses  were 
always  creeping  westwards  on  both  sides  of  the  way. 
*'  On  the  high  street,"  says  the  Sufvey  in  the  edition  of 
1618,  '^  have  ye  many  fair  houses  builded,  and  lodgings 
for  Gentlemen,  Innes  for  Travellers,  and  such  like,  up 
almost  (for  it  lacketh  but  little)  to  St  Giles  in  the 
Fields."  1 


IV 

gray's  inn — THE  REVELS  OF  1 594  AND  "THE  COMEDY  OF  ERRORS " 
— <<  TWELFTH  NIGHT  "  AT  THE  MIDDLE  TEMPLE,  160I-2 

The  Gray's  Inn  Fields  extended  over  a  wide  tract 
from  the  Inn  Gateway  to  Kentish  Town  and  Islington. 
Henry,  Lord  Berkeley,  who  died  as  late  as  1613,  used 
when  young  to  hunt  in  Gray's  Inn  Fields  ''and  in  all 
those  parts  towards  Islington  and  Heygate "  while 
living  with  his  mother  at  Kentish  Town  and  at  the 
family  mansion  in  Shoe  Lane ;  and  his  biographer 
states  that  he  was  always  accompanied  by  a  crowd  of 
Inns-of-Court  men,  as  well  as  by  the  hundred  and  fifty 
liveried  retainers,  ''that  daily  then  attended  him  in 
their  Tawny  coates."* 

Mr.  Douthwaite,  in  his  learned  history  of  Gray's 
Inn,  has  given  an  interesting  account  of  the  Masques 
for  which  the  Society  was  famous.'  These  Masques, 
or   "disguisings,"  were   usually  performed    for   the 

^  Stow,  W.5.,  ed.  1618,  p.  823.  ' 

*  John  Smyth,  The  Lives  of  the  Berkeleys  ,  .  .  from  1066  to  1618,  ed. 
Sir  John  Maclean,  F.S.A.,  1883,  ii.  281-2. 

•  W.  R.  Douthwaite,  Grays  /««,  its  History  and  Associations,  1886, 
chap.  X.  pp.  222-46. 

O 


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194  LANDMARKS   IN   LONDON 

amusement  of  visitors  during  the  period  allotted  for 
Revels.  The  old  dictionaries  define  Revels  and 
revelling  as  being  noisy  pastimes,  or  (as  we  might 
say)  old-fashioned  Christmas  sports,  such  as  dancing, 
dice-playing,  round  games,  **  used  in  Princes'  Courts, 
noblemen's  houses,  or  Inns  of  Court,  and  commonly 
performed  at  night.  "^  We  are  told  that  at  **  Grand 
Christmas,"  as  celebrated  in  the  Inner  Temple,  the 
Master  of  the  Game  summoned  his  huntsman  into  the 
Hall,  who  came  with  a  purse-net,  and  a  cat  and  a  fox, 
bound  to  a  staff;  **and  with  them  nine  or  ten  Couple 
of  Hounds,  with  the  blowing  of  Hunting-Hornes.  And 
the  Fox  and  Cat  are  by  the  Hounds  set  upon,  and 
killed  beneath  the  Fire."^  Mr.  Douthwaite  describes 
the  last  occasion  on  which  the  Solemn  Revels  took 
place  at  the  Inner  Temple  Hall.'  This  was  the  feast 
held  on  the  2nd  of  February,  1733-4,  to  celebrate  the 
promotion  of  Mr.  Talbot  to  the  Woolsack.  After 
dinner,  we  are  told,  every  member  of  a  mess  was 
supplied  with  a  flask  of  claret,  besides  the  usual 
allowance  of  port  and  sack:  ^'the  master  of  the 
revels  took  the  Lord  Chancellor  by  the  right  hand, 
who  with  his  left  took  Mr.  Justice  Page,  and,  the 
other  Serjeants  and  benchers  being  joined  together, 
all  danced  about  the  coal  fire  three  times,  according 
to  the  old  ceremony  (or  rather  round  the  fire-place,  for 
no  fire  nor  embers  were  in  it),  while  the  ancient  song, 
accompanied  with  music,  was  sung  by  one  Tony  Aston, 
dressed  as  a  barrister."  '*  Dancing  to  song,"  said 
Bacon,    'Ms  a  thing  of  great  state  and   pleasure"; 

*  Minsbeu,  Ductor  in  Linguas,  1617,  gives  the  definition  **  Revels 
seemeth  tb  be  derived  from  the  French  word  ReveiUer.  ...  It  sig-nifieth 
with  us  sports  of  dancing,  masking,  comedies,  tragedies,  and  such  like 
used  in  the  King's  house,  the  houses  of  Court,  or  of  other  great  person- 
ages. The  reason  whereof  is,  because  they  are  most  used  by  night, 
when  otherwise  men  commonly  sleepe  and  be  at  rest." 

2  Dugdale,  Origines  Jtiridictales,  1666,  cap.  57,  p.  154. 

'  Douthwaite,  u,s,y  p.  244-6. 


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REVELS  AT  GRAY'S  INN  195 

but  he  added  in  the  same  essay  that  ^^  dancing  in 
song  "  was  a  mean  and  vulgar  thing  ;  whereas  *'  acting 
in  song,  especially  in  dialogues,"  seemed  to  him  to 
have  **an  extreme  good  grace."  ^  Bacon,  it  will  be 
remembered,  was  often  engaged  in  managing  the 
Revels  at  Gray's  Inn ;  his  kindness  in  matters  of  this 
**  lighter  and  less  serious  kind  "  is  fully  acknowledged 
in  the  dedication  to  the  Masque  of  Flowers,  first  re- 
presented in  1613-14,  *'by  the  gentlemen  of  Gray's 
Inn,"  at  the  Banqueting  House  at  Whitehall,  and 
reproduced  in  our  own  time  at  Gray's  Inn  and  the 
Middle  Temple  on  the  occasion  of  Queen  Victoria's 
Jubilee.* 

Besides  the  ^'Solemn  Revels  "above-mentioned,  there 
were  certain  ''  Post  Revels,"  performed  by  the  **  better 
sort"  of  young  Templars  **  with  Galliards,  Corrantoes, 
and  other  dances ;  or  else  with  stage  plays";  **  but  of 
late  years,"  said  Dugdale,  ''these  Post  Revells  have 
been  dis-used,  both  here  and  in  the  other  Innes  of 
Court." » 

Mr.  Douthwaite  mentions  the  representation  of  a 
comedy  at  Gray's  Inn  on  the  i6th  of  January,  1587-8, 
at  which  Lord  Burghley  and  other  dignitaries  were 
present.^  He  shows  also  that  on  the  28th  of  February 
following  eight  members  of  the  Society  were  engaged 
in  producing  a  tragedy  on  the  '*  Misfortunes  of  Arthur," 
to  be  represented  before  the  Queen  at  Greenwich.^ 
Thomas  Hughes  was  the  author,  and  it  is  said  that 
Bacon,  who  was  then  a  reader,  took  part  in  devising 
the  dumb  shows.  Mr.  Spedding  has  shown  in  his 
Biography  that  Bacon  must  also  have  been  the  author 
of  some  of  the  speeches  of  the  ''  Prince  of  Purpoole," 

^  Bacon,  Essay  xxxviL,  ''Of  Masques  and  Triumphs."  (Works,  ed. 
Spedding,  Ellis,  and  Heath,  1858,  vi.  467). 
^  See  quotations  in  Douthwaite,  u,s.,  p.  223. 
>  Dugdale,  u.s.,  cap,  61,  "The  Middle  Temple,"  p.  205. 
*  Douthwaite,  u.s.,  p.  225.  <^  Id,,  pp.  226-7. 


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196  LANDMARKS   IN   LONDON 

prepared  for  the  Revels  of  1594.^  As  to  the  play,  we 
may  observe  that,  though  King  Arthur  was  several 
times  shown  on  the  stage,  the  Gray's  Inn  version  may 
very  possibly  have  suggested  some  of  the  reminiscences 
of  Justice  Shallow.  **  When  I  lay  at  Clement's  Inn — 
I  was  then  Sir  Dagonet  in  Arthur's  show."*  *'I  do 
remember  him,"  says  Sir  John,  **at  Clement's  Inn 
like  a  man  made  after  supper  of  a  cheese-paring."' 
The  Revels  of  1594  are  described  in  a  rare  book  called 
Gesta  Grayorum ;  or^  the  History  of  Henry ^  Prince  of 
Purpoole,^  from  which  extracts  have  been  made  by 
Mr.  Spedding  and  Mr.  Douthwaite.^  The  ** Prince" 
was  the  lord  of  misrule  at  Gray's  Inn,  his  duties 
answering  to  those  of  the  Constable  Marshal  at  the 
Temple,  and  the  Prince  de  la  Grange  at  Lincoln's  Inn. 
The  volume  in  question  was  not  published  till  1688, 
but  it  contains  a  contemporary  account  of  the  perform- 
ance of  Shakespeare's  Comedy  of  Errors,  **  Besides 
the  daily  Revels  and  suchlike  Sports,  which  were 
usual,  there  was  intended  divers  Grand  nights  for  the 
Entertainment  of  Strangers."  What  the  crowd  would 
be  like  we  may  judge  by  a  story  in  Webster  and  Dek- 
ker's  Westward  Ho!  **This  last  Christmas  a  citizen 
and  his  wife,  as  it  might  be  one  of  you,  were  invited  to 

*  spedding,  Letters  and  Life  of  Francis  Bacon,  1861,  i.  342-3.  **  That 
the  speeches  of  the  six  councillors  were  written  by  him,  and  by  him 
alone,  no  one  who  is  at  all  familiar  with  his  style  either  of  thoug-ht  or 
expression  will  for  a  moment  doubt." 

^  2  Henry  IV.,  tii.  2,  299-300.  The  reference  to  **  Arthur's  show," 
however,  has  a  distinct  and  recognised  origin  which  has  nothing  to  do 
with  stage-plays.  *  Ibid,,  331-3. 

*  Printed  by  Nichols  in  Progresses  of  Queen  Elijgabeth  (ed.  1823),  iii.  262. 
The  "  prince's  "  full  style  is  "  The  High  and  Mighty  Prince  Henry,  Prince 
of  Purpoole,  Arch  Duke  of  Stapulia  and  Bemardia,  Duke  of  High  and 
Nether  Holbom,  Marquis  of  St.  Giles  and  Tottenham,  Count  Palatine  of 
Bloomsbury  and  Clerkenwell,  Great  Lord  of  the  Cantons  of  Islington, 
Kentish  Town,  Paddington,  and  Knights-Bridge,  Knight  of  the  Most 
Heroical  Order  of  the  Helmet,  and  Sovereign  of  the  same  :  who  reigned 
and  died  a.d.  1594." 

»  Spedding,  u,s.,  pp.  332-41 ;  Douthwaite,  «.*.,  pp.  227-3a 


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REVELS   OF  1694  197 

the  Revels  one  night  at  one  of  the  Inns-o'-court :  the 
husbandy  having  business,  trusts  his  wife  thither  to 
take  up  a  room  for  him  before."^  This  looks  as  if 
there  were  reserved  seats  in  stages  or  galleries,  if  not 
boxes,  like  the  ''rooms"  in  the  theatre.  We  are  told 
of  the  torchmen  at  the  gate,  and  the  ''whifflers"  who 
kept  the  road  clear,  and  of  the  clamorous  crowd  *'  able 
to  drown  the  throats  of  a  shoal  of  fishwives."  On 
December  28th,  the  second  of  the  Grand  Nights,  the 
actors  came  over  from  Shoreditch  to  entertain  the 
guests  with  a  play ;  but  the  beholders  were  so  nu- 
merous that  there  was  no  space  for  the  performers. 
The  guests  from  the  Temple  retired  in  displeasure, 
and  the  ''throngs  and^umults,"  as  we  are  told,  "did 
somewhat  cease,  although  so  much  of  them  continued, 
as  was  able  to  disorder  and  confound  any  good  Inven- 
tions whatsoever."  We  can  imagine  the  dismay  of  the 
actors  at  all  this  noise.  The  scene  recalls  the  words  : 
"By  my  troth,  your  town  is  troubled  with  unruly 
boys."  ^  "In  regard  whereof,"  the  narration  continues, 
"as  also  for  that  the  sports  intended  were  especially 
for  the  gracing  the  Templariansy  it  was  thought  good 
not  to  offer  anything  of  Account,  saving  Dancing  and 
Revelling  with  Gentlewomen."  We  now  learn  what 
the  managers  included  in  their  idea  of  poor  inventions 
of  no  account.  "  After  such  sports,  a  Comedy  of  Errors 
(like  to  Plautus  his  Menechmus)  was  played  by  the 
Players,  so  that  night  was  begun  and  continued  to  the 
end,  in  nothing  but  Confusion  and  Errors ;  whereupon 
it  was  ever  afterwards  called  The  Night  of  Errors^  * 
It  was,  in  truth,  a  wild  "Tartar  limbo,"*  if  we  borrow 

*  Westward  Ho  /  (ed.  Dyce,  1857)  act  v.  sc.  4.  Fleay,  Biographical 
Chronicle  of  English  Dramas  1891,  ii.  269-70,  ascribes  "  nearly  all "  acts 
iv.  and  v.  to  Dekker  "in  Dec,  1604,"  ^^'^  «'cst  to  Webster  "in  the  sum- 
mer of  1603.  .  .  .  Dekker's  part  is  personally  satiric." 

*  Comedy  of  Errors^  iii.  i,  62. 
'  Gesta  Grayorum^  u,s, 

*  Comedy  of  Errors,  iv.  2,  32. 


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198  LANDMARKS   IN   LONDON 

the  phrases  of  the  comedy,  full  of  sirens  and  wizards,^ 
enough  to  make  a  man  "as  mad  as  a  buck":^ 

"  This  is  the  fairy  land  :  O  spite  of  spites  ! 
We  talk  with  goblins,  owls,  and  sprites  ; 
If  we  obey  them  not,  this  will  ensue, 
They'll  suck  our  breath  or  pinch  us  black  and  blue."* 

Next  night  was  held  one  of  those  burlesque  Courts 
of  which  the  lawyers  were  so  fond ;  *  and  it  was 
pleaded  that  some  sorcerer  had  interfered,  the  in- 
nuendo being  evidently  directed  against  Bacon,  and 
that  he  had  foisted  in  "a  company  of  base  and 
common  fellows,"  who  had  made  the  disorder  worse 
by  their  **play  of  Errors  and  Confusions."  The 
company  thus  rudely  described  most  probably  in- 
cluded Shakespeare.  The  selection  of  his  comedy  is  in 
favour  of  this  idea  ;  and  that  he  was  one  of  the  leading 
actors  appears  by  the  fact  that  he  went  with  Burbage 
and  Kempe  to  act  before  the  Queen  at  Greenwich  on 
the  26th  and  28th  of  December,  1594,  a  few  days  after 
the  performance  at  Gray's  Inn.  It  may  be  assumed 
from  the  whole  scope  of  the  narrative  that  The  Comedy 
of  Errors  was  not  presented  as  a  new  piece.  It  was 
obviously  put  on  as  a  makeshift ;  and  there  are  other 
circumstances  which  have  led  the  commentators  to 
suppose  that  it  was  produced  before  1594.  The 
Mencechmi  of  Plautus  in  an  English  version  was  not 
published  before  the  following  year ;  but  Malone 
showed  from  the  printer's  own  advertisement  that  the 
book  had  been  for  a  long  time  circulating  in  manu- 
script.'* The  joke  in  the  play  about  France  **  making 
war  against  her  heir"®  would  not  have  been  very 
appropriate  after  the  25th  of  July,  1593,  when  Henry 
IV.  of    France   made  his  peace  with  the  Parisians. 

^  Id,^  iii.  2,  47  ;  iv.  4,  61.  '  A/.,  iii.  i,  72. 

'  /ot,  ii.  2,  191-4.  *  Gesta  Grayorum,  u,s. 

'  Malone,  op,  fiV.,  ii.  322.  •  Comedy  of  Errors ^  tti.  2,  126-7. 

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THE  COMEDY  OF  ERRORS  199 

The  use  of  the  name  Menaphon  may  show  that  the 
play  was  subsequent  to  the  publication  of  Greene's 
novel  of  that  title  in  1589.^  Nell  the  kitchen-maid, 
again,  is  called  Dowsabel,*  with  reference  apparently 
to  Drayton's  **  Dowsabel  of  Arden,"  who  wore  ** a  frock 
of  frolic  green  "  in  his  pastoral  of  1593  : — 

"  This  maiden  in  a  morn  betime, 
Went  forth  when  May  was  in  the  prime, 

To  get  sweet  setywall, 
The  honeysuckle,  the  harlock, 
The  Jily,  and  the  lady-smock, 
To  deck  her  summer  hall."* 

But  here  again  we  must  remember  that  the  poems  in 
the  Shepherd*s  Garland  may  have  been  handed  about 
for  some  time  in  manuscript,  and  we  must  be  content 
with  the  general  statement  that  the  play  probably 
appeared  between  1591  and  the  beginning  of  1593. 

On  the  3rd  of  January  following  there  was  another 
Grand  Night  at  Gray's  Inn,  at  which  the  players  again 
attended  and  went  through  their  performance  with 
great  success.-*  The  list  of  guests  invited  by  **Qur 
Prince"  included  Lord  Burghley,  "foremost  in  aught 
that  concerned  the  welfare  of  his  chosen  inn,"*^  the 
Earl  of  Essex,  **the  Queen's  great  general,"  Lord 
Compton,  Sir  Robert  Cecil,  the  young  Earl  of  South- 
ampton, "with  a  great  number  of  knights,,  ladies, 
and  very  worshipful  personages :  all  which  had  con- 
venient places,  and  very  good  entertainment,  to  their 
good  liking  and  contentment."  The  next  day  the 
Prince  of  Purpoole  dined  in  state  with  the  Lord  Mayor 
at  Crosby  Place,  "attended  by  eighty  gentlemen  of 
Gray's  Inn  and  the  Temple,  each  of  them  wearing  a 
plume  on  his  head." 

*  /rf.,  V.  I,  367-8  : —  "  That  most  famous  warrior, 

Duke  Menaphon." 
2  /t/.,  tv.  I,  no.  '  Drayton,  Pastorals^  eclogue  iv. 

*  G9sta  Grayorum^  u,s,  '  Douthwaite,  «.*.,  p.  225. 


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200  LANDMARKS   IN   LONDON 

Another  allusion  to  revels  of  this  kind  was  found  in 
a  letter  written  by  a  barrister  named  Manningham,  in 
February,  1601-2.*  The  writer  is  describing  certain 
revels  at  the  Middle  Temple,  and  he  compares  Shake- 
speare's new  comedy  to  an  old  Italian  play  called 
Gl^  Ingannatij  which  had  appeared  as  early  as  1542. 
"  At  our  feast  wee  had  a  play  called  Twelve  Night,  or 
what  you  will,  much  like  the  Commedy  of  Errores,  or 
Menechmi  in  Plautus,  but  most  like  and  neere  to  that 
in  Italian  called  Inganni.  A  good  practise  in  it  to 
make  the  steward  beleeve  his  lady  widdowe  was  in 
love  with  him,  by  counterfayting  a  letter  as  from  his 
lady  in  general  termes,  telling  him  what  shee  liked 
best  in  him,  and  prescribing  his  gesture  in  smiling, 
his  apparraile,  &c.,  and  then,  when  he  came  to  practise, 
making  him  beleeve  they  tooke  him  to  be  mad." 
This  entertainment  took  place  at  the  Candlemas  Feast 
held  on  February  2nd,  1601,  O.S.,  when  the  Judges 
and  Serjeants  were  entertained.  Dugdale  has  left 
some  account  of  this  festivity.  There  were  two  such 
feasts  in  the  year,  appointed  for  All  Saints'  Day  and 
the  Purification  of  our  Lady,  or  Candlemas  Day. 
The  invitations  were  at  first  confined  to  the  members 
of  the  profession  ;  **  but  of  later  time,  divers  Noblemen 
have  been  mixed  with  them,  and  solemnly  invited 
as  Guests  to  the  Dinner,  in  regard  they  were  formerly 
of  the  Society."  When  the  company  was  assembled 
**two  antient  Utter-Baristers "  brought  basons  and 
ewers  of  sweet  water  for  washing  their  hands,  **and 
two  other  like  antient  barristers  with  Towells."^ 

^  Printed  and  in  facsimile  in  HalUwell-Phillipps,  Outlines,  ii.  82. 
*  Dugdale,  u,s.,  cap,  61,  p.  205. 


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GRAY'S   INN   GARDENS  201 


THB  GARDENS  OF  GRAY'S  INN— JOHN  GERARD'S  GARDEN  IN 
HOLBORN 

It  appears  from  the  records  of  the  Society  that  the 
gardens  of  Gray's  Inn  were  laid  out  under  the  direc- 
tion of  Bacon  about  the  year  1597.  Mr.  Douthwaite 
quotes  an  order  of  the  29th  of  April,  1600,  in  which 
allowance  was  made  for  money  disbursed  by  him 
** about  the  Garnishing  of  the  walkes;"^  and  men- 
tions a  summer-house  upon  a  small  hillock,  '^open 
on  all  sides,  and  the  roof  supported  by  slender  pillars," 
which  bore  an  inscription  showing  that  it  had  been 
erected  by  Bacon  in  memory  of  Jeremy  Bettenham, 
formerly  Reader  of  Gray's  Inn.^  The  same  records 
show  that  a  considerable  number  of  elms,  with  three 
walnut-trees,  **and  one  young  ash  near  the  seat,"  had 
been  planted  as  early  as  1583.^  The  walks  after- 
wards became  a  place  of  public  resort,  much  visited 
**by  the  gentry  of  both  sexes,"  especially  after  the 
Restoration.  We  need  here  only  refer  to  two 
passages  in  letters  written  from  Venice  by  James 
Howell  to  his  friend  Richard  Altham  at  Gray's  Inn. 
**Did  you  know  all,"  says  Howell,  **you  would  wish 
your  Person  here  a-while ;  did  you  know  the  rare 
beauty  of  this  Virgin  City,  you  would  quickly  make 
love  to  her,  and  change  your  Royal  Exchange  for  the 
RialtOj  and  your  Gray's-Inn-Walks  for  St.  Mark's-Place 
for  a  time.  Farewell,  dear  Child  of  Vertue,  and 
Minion  of  the  Muses,  and  love  still — Yours,  J.  H."* 
In  the  other  letter  he  addresses  his  friend  as  ''dear 

*  Douthwaite,  tf.5.,  p.  183. 

^  Id.,  pp.  184-5,  quoted  from  London  and  its  Environs  described,  1761, 
ill.  58.  '  Id,f  pp.  185-6. 

*  Howell,  Epp.  Ho-EUancB^  ed.  Joseph  Jacobs,  1892,  p.  73  (bk.  i.  §  i, 
letter  32,  dated  x  July,  162 1). 


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202  LANDMARKS   IN   LONDON 

Dick,"  and  says:  **I  would  I  had  you  here  with  a 
wish,  and  you  would  not  desire  in  haste  to  be  at  Gray's- 
Inn,  tho'  I  hold  your  Walks  to  be  the  pleasant'st 
place  about  London^  and  that  you  have  there  the 
choicest  Society."  i  These  letters  appear  to  have  been 
written  about  five  years  after  Shakespeare's  death. 

There  was  a  garden  on  the  other  side  of  the  street, 
which  must  also  have  been  familiarly  known  to  the 
poet.  John  Gerard,  the  botanist  and  author  of  the 
celebrated  Herbal^  lived  in  Holborn,  just  inside  the 
City  Liberties,  between  Chancery  Lane  and  Staple 
Inn.  We  shall  select  a  few  specimens  from  his  herb- 
garden,  before  going  through  the  rose-walks  and 
orchards.  We  take  the  tomato  first,  of  which  the  red 
kind  was  already  well  known  in  London,  and  the 
yellow  had  just  been  introduced.  **  Apples  of  Love," 
says  Gerard,  ''grow  in  Spaine,  Italie,  and  such  hot 
countries,  from  whence  my  selfe  have  received  seedes 
for  my  garden,  where  they  do  increase  and  prosper  .  .  . 
the  apple  of  Love  is  called  in  Latine  Pomum 
Aureum  ...  in  English  apples  of  Love,  and 
golden  apples  .  .  .  howbeit  there  be  other  golden 
apples  whereof  the  poets  do  fable  growing  in  the 
gardens  of  the  daughters  of  Hesperus.^^^  Shake- 
speare's allusions  to  golden  apples  are  confined  to  the 
Ovidian  fable :  there  is  Cupid,  a  little  Hercules, 
**  still  climbing  trees,  in  the  Hesperides : " »  and  in  a 
passage  of  more  doubtful  authorship  is  the  picture  of 
a  Lady  apparelled  like  the  Spring  : — 

**  Before  thee  stands  this  fair  Hesperides, 
With  golden  fruit,  but  dangerous  to  be  touched  ; 
For  death-like  dragons  here  affright  thee  hard."* 

Something  should  be  said  of  potatoes,  including  in 

^  Id,y  p.  69  (bk.  i.  8  I,  letter  30,  dated  5  June,  162 1). 
'^  Gerard,  op,  cit,y  lib,  ii.  cap,  55,  p.  275. 

'  Loves  Labours  Losty  iv.  3,  340-1  s  **  For  valour,  is  not  Love  a 
Hercules,"  etc.  *  Pericles^  i.  i,  12,  27-9. 


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GERARD'S  GARDEN  203 

the  term  the  yams,  or  sweet-potatoes,  twice  mentioned 
in  the  plays,  as  well  as  the  more  familiar  '^  Potatoes 
of  Virginia,"  which  were  brought  to  this  country  by 
Sir  Walter  Ralegh.  Of  the  first  kind  Gerard  writes 
as  follows  :  '*  This  plant  which  is  called  of  some  .  .  . 
Skyrrits  of  Peru,  is  generally  of  us  called  Potatus  or 
Potatoes.  It  hath  long  rough  flexible  branches  trail- 
ing upon  the  ground,  like  unto  Pompions ;  whereupon 
are  set  rough  hairie  leaves,  very  like  unto  those  of  the 
wilde  Cucumber."^  The  flower,  he  adds,  remained 
unknown  :  '*  yet  have  I  had  in  my  garden  divers  roots 
that  have  florished  unto  the  first  approch  of  winter,  & 
have  growen  unto  a  great  length  of  branches,  but 
they  brought  not  foorth  any  flowers  at  all."  Again, 
he  tells  us  that  the  potatoes  grow  in  India  (by  which 
he  means  the  West  Indies  and  South  America),  in 
Barbary,  and  in  Spain:  *'of  which  I  planted  divers 
rootes  (that  I  bought  at  the  exchange  in  London)  in 
my  garden,  where  they  flourished  untill  winter,  at 
which  time  they  perished  and  rotted."  Among  the 
Spaniards,  Italians,  and  **  Indians,"  these  yams  or 
batatas  were  valued  as  being  **a  meane  betweene 
flesh  and  fruit."  '*  Of  these  rootes  may  be  made  con- 
serves, no  less  toothsome,  wholesome,  and  daintie, 
than  of  the  flesh  of  Quinces.  And  likewise  these 
comfortable  and  delicate  meates,  called  in  shops 
Morselli,  Placentulae,  and  divers  other  such  like. 
These  rootes  may  serve  as  a  ground  or  foundation, 
•  whereon  the  cunning  confectioner  or  Sugar  baker  may 
worke  and  frame  many  comfortable  delicate  conserves, 
and  restorative  sweete  meates."  Of  the  Sea-holly, 
coupled  by  Falstaff  with  these  sweetmeats,  when  he 
challenged  the  sky  to  rain  *' potatoes,"*  Gerard  says 

*  Gerard,  op.  cit,  lib,  ii.  cap,  334,  p.  78a     The  skirwort,  or  skirret 
proper,  was  the  water-parsnip  (stum  sisarum).    See  Nares'  Glossary,  s.v, 

*  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor^  v.  5,  20-4 :  **  Let  the  sky  rain  potatoes  .  ,  , 
hail  kissing-comfits  and  snow  eringoes." 


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204  LANDMARKS   IN   LONDON 

that  he  had  both  kinds  in  his  London  garden,  and 
**  that  the  rootes  condited  or  preserved  with  sugar  .  .  . 
are  exceeding  good  to  be  given  unto  old  and  aged 
people  that  are  consumed  and  withered  with  age."  ^ 

The  root  naturalised  in  this  country  was  called  Pap- 
pus, or  Potato  of  America,  or  of  Virginia,  because  it 
had  not  only  the  shape,  but  something  of  the  taste 
and  virtue  of  the  better-known  yam  from  Peru.  •'  It 
groweth  naturally  in  America,"  says  the  Herbalist, 
**  where  it  was  first  discovered,  as  reporteth  C  Clusiiis, 
since  which  time  I  have  received  rootes  hereof  from 
Virginia,  otherwise  called  Norembega,  which  growe 
and  prosper  in  my  garden,  as  in  their  own  native 
countrie."* 

Of  tobacco,  **the  Indian  pot-herb,"  Gerard  had  three 
kinds  under  cultivation,  distinguished  as  the  Henbane 
of  Peru,  the  Trinidada  Tobacco,  and  the  dwarf  variety.* 
Tobacco  **was  first  brought  into  Europe  out  of  the 
prouinces  of  America,  which  is  called  the  west  Indies 
.  .  .  but  being  now  planted  in  the  gardens  of  Europe, 
it  prospereth  very  well."*  Gerard  recommended  the 
juice  boiled  with  sugar  into  a  syrup;  but  **some  use 
to  drinke  it  (as  it  is  tearmed)  for  wantonnesse  or  rather 
custome,  and  cannot  forbeare  it,  no,  not  in  the  middest 
of  their  dinner  ";  and  he  earnestly  commends  the  syrup 
** above  this  fume  or  smokie  medicine."^  The  Yellow 
Henbane,  or  English  tobacco,  was  often  used  instead 
of  the  Indian  herb,  and  it  was  even  imported  from 
Trinidad  and  Virginia  under  the  names  of  **Petum," 
or  **  Petun,"  and  **  Nicosiana,"  that  belonged  of  right 
to  the  true  tobacco.  We  are  told  that  many  preferred 
to  use  this  **  doubtful  Henbane,"  and  that  it  produced 
the  desired  effects:  '* which  any  other  herbe  of  hot 
temperature  will  do,"  says  Gerard,   *'as   rosemarie, 

^  Gerard,  op»  ctt,  lib,  ii.  cap.  469,  p.  1,000. 

2  Id.,  lib.  ii.  cap.  335,  p.  781.         '  Id.,  lib.  ii.  cap,  63,  p.  286. 

*  Ibid.y  pp.  287-8.  •  Id.f  lib.  ii.  cap.  62,  pp.  284-5. 


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GERARD'S  TOBACCO-PLANTS  205 

time,  winter  sauorie,  sweet  marierome,  and  such  like/'^ 
He  might  have  included  colt's-foot,  though  it  was  con- 
sidered to  be  of  a  colder  temperature  ;  this  was  used  at 
Bartholomew  Fair  to  adulterate  the  rank  Mundungus. 
**  Three-pence  a  pipe-full  I  will  have  made,"  says 
Ursula,  '*of  all  my  whole  half-pound  of  tobacco,  and 
a  quarter  of  pound  of  colt's-foot  mixt  with  it  too,  to 
[eke]  it  out"  2  We  may  read  in  another  play  how  the 
•*rich  smoke,"  at  sixpence  a  pipe-full,  was  served  in  a 
smart  druggist's  shop.  The  herb  is  kept  in  a  lily-pot, 
and  minced  on  a  maple-block ;  there  are  **  Winchester 
pipes,"  and  silver  tongs,  and  a  fire  from  shavings  of 
juniper.* 


VI 

SHAKESPEARE   A   HOUSEHOLDER   IN   BISHOPSGATE — 
CROSBY   PLACE 

We  find  Shakespeare,  towards  the  end  of  his  life, 
purchasing  an  old  house  in  the  Liberty  of  Blackfriars, 
nearly  opposite  the  Church  of  St.  Andrew  by  the 

1  Ihid.,  p.  285. 

^  Jonson,  Bartholomew  Fair^  ii.  i.  The  editors  of  Nares,  op,  city 
quote  Poor  Robin  (1713) :  *'  Since  the  man  persuaded  his  master  .  .  . 
that  he  should  not  put  so  much  colt's-foot  in  his  tobacco."  Cf.  also 
Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  Nice  Valour,  iii.  2  : — 

"  Our  modem  kick, 
Which  has  been  mig'htily  in  use  of  late 
Since  our  young  men  drank  colt's-foot" 
'  The  Alchemist,  i.  i  :— 

**  He  lets  me  have  good  tobacco,  and  he  does  not 
Sophisticate  it  with  sack-lees  or  oil. 
Nor  washes  it  in  muscadel  and  grains. 
Nor  buries  it  in  gravel,  under  ground, 
Wrapp'd  up  in  greasy  leather  .  .  . 
But  keeps  it  in  fine  lily  pots,  that,  open'd, 
Smell  like  conserve  of  roses,  or  French  beans. 
He  has  his  maple  block,  his  silver  tongs, 
Winchester  pipes,  and  fire  of  Juniper." 


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2o6  LANDMARKS   IN  LONDON 

Wardrobe ;  but  we  have  no  evidence  that  he  lived  in 
that  neighbourhood  at  any  earlier  date.  His  biog- 
raphers have  relied  on  slight  indications  to  show  that 
he  may  have  resided  at  one  time  near  Shoreditch,  at 
another  time  near  the  new  Blackfriars  Theatre^  and 
afterwards  near  the  Globe  upon  Bankside.  There 
seems,  however,  to  be  nothing  that  can  be  treated  as 
good  evidence  upon  the  matter  until  we  come  to 
Mr.  Hunter's  discovery  that  Shakffipeare  was  a  house- 
holder in  St.  Helen's,  Bishopsgate  Street,  when  a  sub- 
sidy was  assessed  under  an  Act  of  Parliament  in  the 
year  1598.^ 

There  were,  however,  events  which  called  his  atten- 
tion to  that  neighbourhood  about  the  time  of  his  first 
arrival  in  London  ;  and  it  may  be  that  we  owe  to  them 
the  allusions  to  Crosby  Place  in  St.  Helen's  Parish 
which  Shakespeare  brings  into  his  version  of  the 
tragedy  of  Richard  III.  On  the  8th  of  May,  1586, 
says  Stow,  Henry  Ramel,  or  Ramelius,  **  Chancellor 
of  Denmark,  ambassador  unto  the  queen's  majesty  of 
England  from  Frederick  the  Second,  the  king  of  Den- 
mark," was  received  by  Gilbert  Lord  Talbot  at  Black- 
wall,  and  conducted  to  Greenwich  and  thence  to  the 
Tower  Wharf ;  at  the  Tower  he  was  received  by  Lord 
Cobham  and  other  noblemen,  and  was  escorted  through 
Fenchurch  Street  to  Crosby  Place,  where  he  was 
lodged  till  he  had  finished  his  embassy  at  the  Queen's 
expense.* 

Crosby  Place  house,  says  Stow,  was  built  by  Sir 
John  Crosby  under  a  lease  for  ninety-nine  years  from 
1466  granted  to  him  by  Alice  Ashfeld,^  prioress  of  St. 
Helen's:  **This  house  he  built  of  stone  and  timber, 
very  large  and  beautiful,  and  the  highest  at  that  time 
in  London."     He  was  one  of  the  sheriflfe  and  an  alder- 

*  Hunter,  op,  cit.^  pp,  76-80.         *  Stow,  Survey  (1598),  tt.5.,  p.  187. 
^  Ashfed  is  the  reading-  in  the  early  editions  of  Stow ;  it  was  altered 
by  Strype. 


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CROSBY  PLACE  207 

man  in  1470,  and  was  knighted  during  the  next  year 
for  helping  to  repel  the  Bastard  of  Faulconbridge  when 
he  attacked  the  city.^  We  may  remember  how  Queen 
Margaret  complains  when  Warwick  becomes  Lord 
of  Calais,  and  **  stern  Falconbridge  commands  the 
narrow  seas."^ 

It  is  by  a  poetic  licence  that  Richard  of  Gloucester 
is  made  to  take  up  his  abode  in  the  house  before  the 
date  of  Sir  John  Crosby's  death.  He  might  be  sup- 
posed to  have  made  appointments  for  meetings  there, 
just  as  he  bade  King  Henry's  pall-bearers  attend  him 
at  Whitefriars,^  or  summoned  Dr.  Shaw  to  the  palace 
of  Baynard's  Castle ;  *  but  Crosby  Place  seems  to  be 
treated  as  his  own,  and  to  be  regarded  as  a  place 
offering  special  facilities  for  his  plots  and  secret  under- 
takings. Here  Catesby  and  the  murderers  of  Clarence 
are  summoned,^  and  here  is  carried  on  the  wooing 
of  the  princess,  whose  husband  Richard  had  stabbed 
in  his  **  angry  mood  "  at  Tewkesbury  : — 

''  That  it  may  please  you  leave  these  sad  designs 
To  him  that  hath  more  cause  to  be  a  mourner, 
And  presently  repair  to  Crosby  Place. "  * 

Sir  John,  says  Stow,  died  in  the  year  1475,  "so 
short  a  time  enjoyed  he  that  his  large  and  sumptuous 
building."^  His  tomb  in  St.  Helen's  Church  bears 
his  figure  in  armour,  with  an  alderman's  cloak  and 
a  collar  of  Yorkist  badges.  It  appeared  by  the  picture 
of  Alderman  Darby,  who  lived  in  Fenchurch  Street  at 
the  time  when  the  tomb  was  set  up,  that  the  official 
costume  was  ''a  gown  of  scarlet  on  his  back,  and  a 
hood  on  his  head  "  and  shoulders.®  Sir  John  Crosby 
left  five  hundred  marks  as  a  gift  for  restoring  the 
church,  which  was  very  well  bestowed,  **as  appeareth 

^  StoWy  Op,  city  p.  186.     See  also  pp.  60,  88,  etc. 

*  3  Henry  F/.,  i.  i,  238-9.  ■  Richard  III, ^  \,  2,  227. 

'  Id,^  iii.  5,  105.  *  Id,y  iii.  i,  190.  *  Id,y  i.  2,  21X-3. 

^  Stow,  op,  city  p.  186.  '  /^fL,  p.  445. 


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2o8  LANDMARKS   IN   LONDON 

by  his  arms,  both  in  the  stonework,  roof  of  timber, 
and  glazing."^  His  widow,  Dame  Anne  Crosby, 
whose  figure  appears  on  her  husband's  tomb,  let  the 
house  in  1476  to  Richard  of  Gloucester,  then  Lord 
Protector,  and  afterwards  King.  The  young  King  was 
for  all  practical  purposes  a  State  prisoner.  ''The 
dealing  itselfe,"  says  the  historian,  "made  men  to 
muse  on  the  matter,  though  the  counsell  were  close ; 
For  by  little  and  little  all  men  with-drew  from  the 
Tower,  and  repaired  to  Crosbies  in  Bishopgate  streete, 
where  the  Protector  kept  his  house  in  great  state."* 
Sir  Thomas  More  lived  at  Crosby  Place  between  the 
years  15 16  and  1523,  and  wrote  the  Utopia  there  after 
his  embassy  to  Flanders.^  We  learn  something  of  his 
family  life  from  his  own  introduction  to  the  romance ; 
for  he  tells  us  that  it  was  part  of  his  daily  business 
to  talk  with  his  wife,  to  chatter  with  the  children,  and 
to  consider  afifairs  with  his  servants.*  "  He's  a  learnt 
man,"  says  Wolsey : 

"May  he  continue 
Long  in  his  highness'  favour,  and  do  justice 
For  truth's  sake  and  his  conscience  ;  that  his  bones, 
When  he  has  run  his  course  and  sleeps  in  blessings, 
May  have  a  tomb  of  orphans'  tears  wept  on  'em."  * 

It  is  not  known  how  long  More  actually  lived  at 
Crosby  Place  before  removing  to  Chelsea.  It  appears, 
however,  that  when  he  became  Speaker  of  the  House 
of  Commons  in  1523,  he  sold  the  lease  to  his  dear 
friend  Antonio  Bonvisi,  a  merchant  from  the  little 
principality  of  Lucca;  and  in  1542,  Bonvisi  bought 

»  Id,,  p.  186. 

^  Speed,  Historie  of  Great  Britaine,  3rd  ed.,  1632,  p.  896. 

'  Arber,  in  the  introduction  to  Utopia  in  ** English  Reprints"  series, 
says  that  the  second  book  was  written  probably  at  Antwerp,  November, 
15 15,  the  first  in  London  early  in  15 16. 

*  Utopia,  u,s.f  p.  22  (introductory  letter  to  Peter  Giles):  "For  when 
I  am  come  home,  I  must  converse  with  my  wife,  chatte  with  my  children, 
and  talke  wyth  my  seruauntes."  *  ffenry  VIII,,  iiL  2,  395-9. 


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INHABITANTS  OF  CROSBY   PLACE    209 

from  the  Crown  the  freehold  of  the  mansion,  with  its 
^'Solars,  Cellars,  Gardens  .  .  .  void  Places  of  Land" 
thereto  belonging.^  We  shall  not  follow  the  title 
minutely.  The  estate  was  confiscated  when  the  mer- 
chant went  home  without  leave,  was  restored  by  Mary, 
hired  by  Elizabeth.  After  the  death  of  More's  **  dear- 
est friend"  the  place  belonged  to  another  foreigner, 
German  Cioll,  or  German  Sciol,  as  the  name  is 
variously  written.  His  wife  Cecilia  was  one  of  the 
parish  benefactors.  **I  find,"  says  Stow,  **.  .  .  ij-. 
also  in  Bread  every  Sunday  given  by  Mrs.  Sciol."* 
We  may  mention  one  or  two  more  of  the  famous 
persons  who  owned  or  lived  in  the  palace.  First, 
of  course,  is  Sidney's  sister,  Mary  Sidney,  Countess 
of  Pembroke,  who  lived  here  for  a  time  when  Pem- 
broke House,  in  Aldersgate  Street,  was  used  for  another 
purpose.®  Next  came  William  Bond,  ^^  Flos  Merca- 
torum,  quos  terra  Britanna  creavit"  as  we  read  on 
a  goodly  monument  upon  the  north  wall  of  St.  Helen's 
choir.  He  was  ^' Argolico  Mercator  lasone  major," 
and  the  winner  of  a  richer  prize.  The  epitaph  of  1576 
says  that  he  was  a  **  Merchant  Venturer,  and  most 
famous  (in  his  Age)  for  his  great  Adventures  both  by 
Sea  and  Land."* 

Crosby  Place  was  purchased  some  time  afterwards 
by  the  rich  Sir  John  Spencer,  who  made  great  repara- 
tions and  improvements,  and  kept  his  mayoralty  there 
after  his  election  to  the  office  in  1594.  ^^  ^^^^  added 
a  great  warehouse  at  the  back  to  receive  East  Indian 
goods,  being  one  of  the  merchants  interested  in  the 
voyage  of  the  three  ships  to  India  and  China,'  from 
which   came  the   East   India  Company.*     We   learn 


^  Stow,  ed.  Strype,  bk.  iu  p.  io6. 
'  Id.,  p.  103.     On  p.  106  the  spellinjj^  is  Cioll. 
'  Loftie,  op,  city  i.  p.  293. 

*  Stow,  u.s.y  bk.  ii.  p.  106.     For  epitaph  see  «/.,  p.  loi.     Bond  died 
30th  May,  1576,  *  Stow,  ed.  1603,  p.  187. 

P 


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2IO  LANDMARKS   IN   LONDON 

from  Stow  of  an  entertainment  given  to  the  great 
Sully,  who  brought  over  the  French  King's  congratula- 
tions on  the  accession  of  James  L  **The  eight  of 
June,  arrived  at  London,  Mounsieur  de  Rosny,  great 
Treasurer  of  Fraunce :  accompanied  with  Noblemen 
and  gallant  Gentlemen  in  great  number,  the  same 
night  they  in  thirty  coaches,  rode  to  the  French 
Ambassadours  leager,  then  lodged  at  the  Barbicane 
by  Redcross  streete,  they  supped  with  him,  and 
returned  to  Crosby  place,  now  beelonging  to  Sir 
John  Spencer  in  Bishops-gate  streete,  where  the  prin- 
cipal! was  lodged,  and  the  other  in  places  neere 
adjoyning."^  Sir  John  died  in  1609,  and  was  laid  in 
a  fair  goodly  tomb  in  the  south  aisle  of  St.  Helen's 
choir,  "as  in  a  Chapel  by  itself."  His  epitaph  tells  us 
that  by  his  wife  Alice  Bromefield  he  had  one  daughter, 
Elizabeth,  his  sole  heiress;  that  she  was  married  to 
William,  Lord  Compton,  who  erected  the  monument 
to  his  most  worthy  father-in-law.* 


VII 

THE  PARISH  OF  ST.  HELEN'S— DESCRIPTION  IN  STOW'S  "SURVEY" 

The  Parish  of  St.  Helen's  is  part  of  the  Ward  of 
Bishopsgate  Within,  which  also  comprises  St.  Ethel- 
burga's,  towards  the  gate,  St.  Martin's  Outwich,  and 
St.  Peter's,  crossed  by  Gracechurch  Street.  Stow's 
careful  description,  with  his  editor's  notes,  will  show  us 
what  the  neighbourhood  was  like  in  Shakespeare's 
time.^  At  the  Gate  itself  was  a  conduit,  leading  on 
the  right  hand  to  several  large  inns.  He  is  speaking 
of  the  inns  near  Gresham  College,  the  **  Four  Swans," 
the  **  Green  Dragon,"  and  the  **  Black  Bull,"  all  in 

^  Stow,  Annals,  continued  by  Howes,  1615,  p.  825. 

^  Stow,  Survey,  ed.  Strype,  bk.  ii.  p.  101.        '  Id.,  bk.  i.  ch.  6,  p.  9a 


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ST.  HELEN'S   PARISH  211 

St.  Ethelburga's ;  the  "Vine,"  the  ** Angel,"  and  the 
''Wrestlers,"  all  in  the  same  parish,  were  on  the 
other  side  of  Bishopsgate  Street.  ^  We  hear  of  plays 
occasionally  performed  in  the  courtyard  of  the  '*  Black 
Bull";  but  the  theatre  known  as  the  "Bull"  was  set 
up  at  the  "Red  Bull,"  in  St.  John's  Street,  Clerkenwell. 
Next  came  Sir  Thomas  Gresham's  great  mansion, 
almost  all  in  St.  Helen's,  the  parish  ending  near  the 
Church  of  St.  Martin's  Outwich.  At  its  west  corner, 
opposite  to  the  church,  was  "a  fair  well  with  two 
buckets,  so  fastened  that  the  drawing  up  of  the  one  let 
down  the  other  "  ;  but  the  edition  of  the  Survey  issued 
in  1603  tells  us  how  "of  late  this  well  is  turned  into  a 
pump."^ 

The  same  volume  contains  a  description  of  the 
boundaries  of  St.  Helen's,  verified  by  John  Harvey, 
the  Parish  Clerk,  in  or  about  the  year  1612.^  The  house 
at  the  south-east  corner  was  occupied  by  Thomas  Child, 
who  was  one  of  the  persons  assessed  at  the  minimum 
rate,  in  1598,  as  not  being  worth  more  than  £z  in  the 
world.  His  house  abutted  on  a  tenement  occupied  by 
James  Austen  in  the  Parish  of  St.  Martin  Outwich. 
Taking  a  line  from  this  point  to  the  other  side  of 
Bishopsgate  Street,  we  reach  the  western  boundary, 
which,  according  to  the  extracts  already  given,  must 
have  been  close  to  the  new  pump  that  had  replaced  the 
well  with  its  chain  and  buckets.  The  furthest  house 
in  this  south-west  angle  of  St.  Helen's  was  occupied  by 
Thomas  Goodson.  It  abutted  on  a  gate  leading  into  a 
tenement  in  the  Parish  of  St.  Martin's  Outwich, 
"wherein  Mr.  Richard  Foxe,  Alderman's  Deputy,  now 
dwelleth."  This  Mr.  Foxe  was  in  charges  of  so  much 
of  the  ward  as  lay  within  the  Gate,  another  Deputy 
being  appointed    by  the    Alderman   for   the   district 

1  Id,,  bk.  ii.  p.  107.  '^  Id,,  1603,  p.  188. 

'  Id.y  16 1 8,  p.  331.    In  Strype's  Stow,  bk.  ii.  p.  105,  Jo.  Warner,  Parish 
Clerk,  verified  the  statement. 


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212  LANDMARKS  IN   LONDON 

between   the   Gate    and   the    Bars    near   Shoreditch. 

Officials  of  this  kind  are  sometimes  mentioned  in  the 

plays.     The  City  Records  inform  us  that  there  was 

a  single  Deputy  for  the  Ward  of  Cheap,  and  Sir  John 

Falstaff  talked  of  '*the  deputy *s  wife  of  the  ward."^ 

The  worthy  hostess  again  was  warned  by  the  officer 

against  entertaining  swaggerers,  when  she  came  before 

Mr.  Tisick  the  Deputy  (and  Mr.  Dumbe  the  Minister 

was  standing  by):    "* Neighbour  Quickly,'  says  he, 

'receive  those  that  are  civil,  for,'  said  he,  'you  are  in 
an  ill  name.' "2 

From  Thomas  Child's  house  the  boundary  ran  up  in 
a  zigzag  line  to  the  opening  of  that  winding  passage 
which  connects  Great  St.  Helen's  and  St.  Mary  Axe. 
The  Parish,  said  John  Harvey,  takes  in  Great  St. 
Helen's  Close,  wherein  is  the  Parish  Church,  ''with  a 
Thorough  fare  to  the  back  Gate  leading  into  St.  Mary 
at  the  Axe ;  and  the  utmost  House  belonging  to  the 
said  Parish,  is  next  adjoining  to  the  said  Gate  towards 
the  South,  and  openeth  into  the  Street  there,  com- 
monly called  St.  Mary  at  Axe."  *  Stow  has  a  still  more 
detailed  account.  There  is  a  Court,  he  says,  with  a 
winding  lane,  coming  out  against  the  west  end  of  St. 
Andrew  Undershafl's  Church  :  "  In  this  Court  standeth 
the  fair  Church  of  St.  Helen,  sometime  a  priory  of 
black  nuns,  and  in  the  same  a  parish  church  of  St. 
Helen."*  The  Priory  had  been  founded  before  the 
reign  of  Henry  IH.  by  William  Basing,  Dean  of  St. 
Paul's.  On  its  dissolution  the  partition  between  the 
nuns'  church  and  the  parish  church  was  taken  down, 
so  that  the  parishioners  had  the  whole;  it  "is  a  fair 
parish  church,"  says  the  Annalist,  "  but  wanteth  such 
a  steeple  as  Sir  Thomas  Gresham  promised  to  have 
built"  to  make  up  for  the  great  space  filled  by  his 
"painted  Alderman's  tomb." 

^  I  Henry  /K,  iii,  3,  130.  ^  2  Henry  IV,,  ii.  4,  90-104. 

•  Stow,  1618,  p.  331.  *  Stow,  1603,  p.  185. 


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BOUNDARIES   OF  ST.  HELEN'S         213 

Passing  up  on  the  eastern  side,  the  boundary  took 
in  Little  St.  Helen's  Close,  formerly  belonging  to  the 
same  Priory,  where  at  the  time  of  the  survey  stood 
the  old  Leathersellers'  Hall  formed  out  of  the  nuns' 
refectory,  with  various  small  tenements  and  six 
**  alms-rooms,"  or  houses  for  the  poor,  maintained  at 
the  charges  of  the  Company.^  The  furthest  house 
within  the  parish  at  the  north-east  angle  belonged  to 
Mr.  Edward  Higges  the  sadler,  and  abutted  on  the 
Parsonage  House  of  St.  Ethelburga's.  The  line  now 
proceeds  westwards  by  St.  Ethelburga's  Church,  cross- 
ing Bishopsgate  Street  nearly  opposite  to  the  old 
entrance  of  the  "Green  Dragon,"  and  turning  so  as 
to  leave  out  the  **  Black  Bull."  The  furthest  house  at 
the  north-west  corner  was  occupied  by  Nathaniel 
Wright,  and  it  **abutteth,"  says  Harvey,  **upon  the 
Messuage  or  Tenement  Inne,  called  the  Blacke  Bull 
in  the  .  .  .  Parish  of  St.  Ethelburge."^  A  few  other 
parishioners  are  mentioned  by  the  old  Parish  Clerk: 
we  may  notice  the  minister,  the  Rev.  Richard  Ball, 
the  churchwardens,  Mr.  William  Robinson  and 
Richard  Westney,  Thomas  Edwards  and  Abraham 
Gramer,  the  sidesmen,  and  Richard  Atkinson,  one  of 
the  seven  scavengers  of  the  ward,  who  found  the  un- 
fortunate infant  **Job  Cinere-Extractus"  in  the  Crosby- 
Place  ashpit,  and  brought  him  into  the  light  on  his 
wheelbarrow. 

We  shall  now  deal  with  the  assessment  of  1598.^ 
The  Parliament  of  the  thirty-ninth  and  fortieth  years 
of  Elizabeth  was  dissolved  on  the  9th  of  February, 
having  first  granted  as  supplies  for  the  defence  of  the 
realm  **  three  Subsidies  of  4?.  in  the  pound  for  lands, 
and  2^^.  &;?.  in  the  pound  for  goods,"  and  six  Fifteens. 
The  Fifteens  were  taxes  upon  personalty,  levied  after 
an  accustomed  rate,  which,  as  far  as  the  Bishopsgate 

*  Stow,  ed.  Strypc,  bk.  ii.  p.  107. 

'  /fit,  1618,  p.  331.  •  See  p.  206,  note  1. 


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214  LANDMARKS   IN   LONDON 

people  were  concerned,  were  of  a  very  unimportant 
amount.  Stow  tells  us  that  in  his  time  the  ward  was 
only  ** taxed  to  the  Fifteen"  at  ^^13  in  the  whole.^ 
The  Subsidy  was  a  very  different  matter.  It  was 
levied  on  all  kinds  of  property  within  the  realm  or 
without,  the  case  of  aliens  and  strangers  being  met  by 
charging  them  at  a  double  rate,  or  by  the  imposition 
of  a  poll-tax,  if  they  had  no  property  within  the  realm. 
It  should  be  observed,  however,  that  the  tax  was 
charged  either  on  lands  or  on  goods,  at  the  discretion 
of  the  Commissioners,  but  not  on  both.  Persons  who 
had  not  property  to  the  value  of  £3  altogether  were 
exempt ;  and  persons  taxed  in  their  usual  place  of 
residence  received  certificates  exempting  them  from 
being  charged  elsewhere.  The  clergy  taxed  them- 
selves in  Convocation. 

As  regards  laymen,  subject  to  what  has  been  said 
above,  the  following  rules  applied.  Land  was  taken 
as  including  fees  of  office,  annuities,  pensions,  and 
other  yearly  profits  of  a  fixed  kind.  In  the  instance 
with  which  we  are  now  to  deal,  Shakespeare  did  not 
claim  to  possess  any  land  or  fixed  yearly  profits,  and 
we  shall  therefore  consider  more  closely  the  principles 
on  which  personalty  was  assessed.  Everyone,  as 
we  have  shown,  was  to  pay  on  his  property,  if  from 
all  sources  together  he  was  worth  £3,  The  taxable 
amount  was  made  up  as  follows:  the  list  included 
coin,  and  what  might  be  valued  in  coin,  as  plate, 
corn  and  grain,  stock  of  merchandise,  household  stufiT, 
and  movable  goods,  ^^and  all  such  sums  of  money  as 
shall  be  owing  whereof  he  trusts  in  his  conscience 

*  Stow,  1603,  p.  188.  On  p.  208  of  his  reprint  Professor  Morley 
notes:  *^The  tax  of  a  fifteenth  of  all  movables  was  first  gp^nted  to 
Henry  III.  in  February,  1225,  by  the  archbishops,  bishops,  abbots, 
priors,  earls,  barons,  knights,  freeholders,  and  all  persons  of  the 
realm,  on  condition  of  a  confirmation  of  Charters.  The  Fifteenth  had 
become  under  Elizabeth  a  recognised  standard  of  taxation  for  the  service 
of  the  country." 


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ASSESSMENT  OF  ST.  HELEN'S  PARISH    215 

surely  to  be  paid " ;  the  deductions  included  reason- 
able apparel  for  the  person  assessed  and  his  wife  and 
children,  other  than  jewels,  gold,  silver,  stone,  and 
pearl,  and  he  might  also  deduct  from  the  capital 
account  all  sums  that  he  lawfully  owed,  **and  in  his 
conscience  intended  truly  to  pay."  The  Commis- 
sioners had  stringent  powers  for  compelling  payment ; 
but  the  person  charged,  if  dissatisfied,  might  have  an 
appeal  or  second  inquiry,  at  which  he  was  examined 
upon  oath. 

The  first  of  the  three  Subsidies  granted  by  Parlia- 
ment was  to  be  paid  at  the  beginning  of  October, 
1 598.  The  Commissioners  for  the  City  included  the 
Lord  Mayor,  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  and  three  of  his 
predecessors  in  ofiSce  —  Sir  John  Hart,  Sir  Henry 
Billingsley,  and  Sir  John  Spencer.  The  Commis- 
sioners appointed  various  deputies,  or  petty  col- 
lectors, the  persons  selected  for  Bishopsgate  Ward 
being  Ferdinando  Clutterbuck,  draper,  and  Thomas 
Symons,  skinner.  The  deputies  made  their  final 
report  on  the  ist  of  October,  their  certificates  for  St. 
Helen's  and  the  other  parishes  in  the  ward  being 
appended  to  an  indenture  of  that  date  made  between 
themselves  and  the  Commissioners.  The  mode  of 
proceeding  is  shown  by  the  Act  that  authorised  the 
Subsidy.  The  Commissioners  in  the  first  place  issued 
a  precept  to  the  most  substantial  householders  and 
inhabitants  to  meet  them  at  some  convenient  spot. 
This  in  the  case  before  us  would  probably  be  Crosby 
Place,  since  the  larger  house  may  have  been  occupied 
by  the  widowed  Lady  Gresham,  and  the  Leather- 
sellers'  Hall  was  very  much  out  of  the  way.  We 
know  the  names  of  several  persons  who  must  have 
been  summoned  to  the  meeting,  and  who  doubtless 
made  out  a  preliminary  list  after  hearing  the  Com- 
missioners' charge.  Sir  John  Spencer  would  be 
there,  as  a  matter  of  course ;  and  it  was  known  that 


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2i6  LANDMARKS   IN   LONDON 

he  would  pay  on  merchandise,  in  lieu  of  land,  £40  on 
a  total  value  of  ;f300,  according  to  the  statutory  rate. 
Lady  Gresham  was  assessed  in  another  district.  Mr. 
William  Reade  chose  to  be  charged  on  his  lands,  the 
value  ;fi50,  the  rate  £30^  at  four  shillings  in  the 
pound.  Mr.  John  Allsoppe  owned  lands  to  one-third 
of  that  value,  and  was  charged  accordingly.  Mr.  John 
Robinson  the  elder  was  one  of  the  most  important 
parishioners.  He  and  his  son  of  the  same  name  both 
chose  to  be  assessed  on  personalty.  Mr.  Robinson's 
tomb  is  in  St.  Helen's  Church,  and  the  language  of 
its  inscription  is  worth  considering  in  relation  to  some 
of  the  discussions  about  the  epitaphs  in  Stratford 
Church.i  The  monument  is  described  as  being  **  be- 
neath the  body  of  the  Church  in  the  North  Wall." 
Within  it,  we  are  told,  lie  the  earthly  parts  of  John 
Robinson,  **  Merchant  of  the  Staple  in  England,  free 
of  the  Merchant  Taylors,  and  sometime  Alderman  of 
London,"  and  of  Christian  his  wife.  She  died  in 
1592,  her  husband  following  her  in  February,  1599. 
**Both  much  beloved  in  their  Lives,  and  more 
lamented  at  their  Deaths ;' especially  by  the  poor,  to 
whom  their  good  Deeds  (being  alive)  begot  many 
Prayers,  now  (being  dead)  many  Tears.  The  Glass 
of  his  Life  held  Seventy  Years,  and  then  ran  out. 
To  live  long,  and  happy,  is  an  Honour;  but  to  die 
happy,  a  greater  Glory.  But  these  aspired  to  both. 
Heaven  (no  doubt)  hath  their  Souls,  and  this  House 
of  Stone  their  Bodies,  where  they  sleep  in  Peace,  till 
the  summons  of  a  glorious  Resurrection  wakens 
them." 

The  duty  of  the  Commissioners  was  to  acquaint  the 
meeting  with  the  object  and  provisions  of  the  Act,  and 
to  direct  the  persons  there  present  to  prepare  a  certifi- 
cate of  all  the  assessments  that  ought  to  be  made  in 
the   locality,  after  making  the  best  inquiry  in   their 

^  Stow,  ed.  Strype,  bk.  ii.  p.  loi. 


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ASSESSMENT  OF  ST.  HELEN'S,  1598    217 

power  ;  and  the  meeting  was  then  adjourned  to  a  future 
day,  when  the  certificate  was  to  be  produced.  The 
Committee,  as  we  may  call  them,  duly  prepared  and. 
presented  their  list  at  the  adjourned  meeting.  It  con- 
tained forty  names  of  householders,  besides  aliens  and 
strangers.  There  were  seven  appeals  by  residents, 
and,  as  might  perhaps  have  been  expected,  almost  all 
the  foreigners  disputed  the  assessment. 

We  will  take  the  foreigners  first.  Mr.  Leven  Vander- 
stylt  made  no  objection ;  it  is  probable  that  he  was 
placed  on  the  committee  to  give  information  about  the 
Flemings  and  Dutchmen.  He  pays  the  double  rate  on 
;f  50,  with  eightpence  for  his  wife,  and  a  similar  poll- 
tax  for  his  servants,  **  Esay  Mislonde,  Matthew  Stilton, 
and  Barbery  Capon."  Dr.  Cullymore,  from  Ireland, 
paid  on  £5  after  some  dispute.  Sherrett  Bawkes,  los. 
Sd.  on  40J.,  and  Joyce  his  wife,  and  Agnes  his  servant, 
per  poll,  i6d.  together.  Laurence  Bassel's  was  the 
most  singular  case.  He  swore  that  he  was  not  worth 
£$}  and  his  son  Peter,  and  three  servants,  **  Peter 
Greade,  Davye  Fayrecook,  and  Frauncis  Dynne,"  all 
swore  that  they  could  not  pay  the  eightpenny  poll- 
tax. 

The  Committee,  it  would  seem,  arranged  the  resident 
householders  in  classes,  taking  a  merciful  view  in 
some  cases,  though  they  were  forbidden  to  consider 
past  assessments  or  anything  except  the  present  values. 
Out  of  the  original  forty  no  less  than  seventeen,  includ- 
ing two  widows,  were  assessed  on  the  minimum  value 
of  ;f3.  Of  the  richer  inhabitants,  besides  those  already 
mentioned,  we  notice  that  three  were  taxed  on  goods 
worth  £zOi  and  five  at  ;f20.  Mr.  Robert  Honywood 
disputed  the  Commissioners'  decision,  and  was  finally 
charged  for  lands  worth  £^  a  year.  Dr.  Richard 
Taylor,  Dr.  Peter  Turnor,  and  Mr.  Edward  Swayne, 
were  each  assessed  for  ;^io  in  land  and  ofiicial  fees, 
very  probably  in  respect  of  appointments  at  Bethlehem 


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2i8  LANDMARKS   IN   LONDON 

Hospital.  Mr.  Snoade,  Mr.  Peole,  and  the  younger 
Mr.  Robinson  were  each  charged  on  the  value  of  ;£"io 
in  goods  and  merchandise,  and  Edward  Jorden  paid  at 
the  same  rate  on  £S.  There  were  only  three  persons 
in  the  remaining  class,  where  the  whole  value  was 
taken  at  £$.  Of  these,  Walter  Briggen  paid  with- 
out dispute,  and  Thomas  Morley  and  William 
Shakespeare  appealed.  The  note  on  the  final  cer- 
tificate in  Shakespeare's  case  was  as  follows:  **  Affid. 
William  Shakespeare.  V^  XIIP  IV^  " ;  or  in  other 
words,  the  entries  being  in  tabular  form,  **  Appell- 
ant sworn :  name,  William  Shakespeare :  amount  in 
goods,  ;^5 :  assessment,  13^.  4^.  at  2^.  %d,  in  the 
pound." 

If  we  refer  to  the  Act  of  Parliament  we  shall  see 
what  took  place.  It  was  provided  in  the  case  of  any 
person  complaining  of  the  rate  before  it  was  certified 
into  the  Exchequer,  that  two  Commissioners  at  least 
should  '^  examine  particularly  and  distinctly  the  person 
so  complaining  upon  his  oath,  and  his  neighbours  by 
their  discretions,"  as  to  his  real  and  personal  property 
of  every  kind ;  and,  after  due  examination  of  all  the 
circumstances,  the  Commissioners  were  empowered 
either  to  diminish  or  increase  the  assessment  as  might 
seem  just.  If  it  were  proved  within  a  year  that  a  false 
declaration  had  been  made,  the  person  offending  was  to 
forfeit  the  amount  at  which  he  had  originally  been 
assessed. 

We  have,  of  course,  no  reason  to  doubt  that  Shake- 
speare's appeal  and  the  Commissioners'  decision  were 
based  upon  just  grounds.  We  must  suppose  that  for 
the  purposes  of  that  inquiry  the  appellant  proved  his 
case.  Yet  what  are  we  to  say  about  the  purchase  of 
the  mansion  at  New  Place,  which  was  completed  in  the 
year  1597?  What,  again,  is  to  be  said  as  to  the 
return  of  owners  of  grain  at  Stratford,  compiled  in 
February,    1598,    considering  that   Shakespeare   was 


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APPEAL  AGAINST  ASSESSMENT       219 

entered  in  it  as  holding  ten  quarters  of  corn?*  The 
price  of  wheat  in  London  had  fallen  a  few  months 
previously  from  104^.  to  80s.  a  quarter ;  **  but  then," 
says  Stow,  **it  arose  again  to  the  late  greatest  price." 
It  should  be  observed,  however,  that  Mr.  Sturley's 
letter  of  the  24th  of  January,  1597-8,^  valued  a  quantity 
of  wheat  delivered  in  Stratford  at  no  more  than  6s.  8d. 
a  strike,  which  would  come  to  only  26s.  8d.  a  quarter. 
He  speaks  in  the  same  letter  of  Shakespeare's  desire 
to  buy  **some  odd  yard-land  or  other  at  Shottery  or 
near  about  us,"  or  to  make  a  bargain  about  the  Strat- 
ford tithes.  We  remember,  too,  how  Richard  Quiney 
the  elder  wrote  in  the  October  following  from  the  **  Bell" 
to  ask  Shakespeare  for  a  loan  of  £30  without  much 
doubt  as  to  the  result."^  Mr.  Quiney,  it  may  be  said, 
was  certainly  sent  to  London  **as  a  deputation," 
carrying  a  request  that  the  borough  might  be  relieved 
from  the  Subsidy.  There  were  many  reasons,  besides 
the  occurrence  of  two  disastrous  fires,  which  might 
induce  Burghley,  as  Lord  Treasurer,  to  give  a  favour- 
able answer  to  the  request.  There  was  a  regular 
machinery  for  excusing  the  poorer  towns  from  the 
payment  of  *' Fifteens,"  and  there  was  nothing  un- 
reasonable in  asking  that  the  same  principle  might  be 
applied  to  a  subsidy.  It  may  be  that  this  would  be 
taken  into  account  by  the  London  Commissioners,  and 
that  they  would  not  charge  Shakespeare  in  respect  of 
his  property  at  Stratford.  But  even  as  regards  his 
possessions  in  London,  we  must  consider  that  he  was 
one  of  the  Lord  Chamberlain's  company  acting  regu- 
larly at  Blackfriars,  that  he  had  produced  at  least 
eighteen  successful  plays,  and  had  quite  lately  sold 
the  copyright  of  his  popular  Richard  III. 

If  the  difficulty  can  be  explained  at  all,  it  will  prob- 

^  Facsimile  in  Halliwell-Phillipps,  op»  city  i.  137. 

*  Printed  in  Halliwell-Phillipps,  id.y  ii.  57-8. 

*  Printed  and  in  facsimile,  id,,  i.  166-7. 


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220 


LANDMARKS   IN   LONDON 


ably  be  found  that  the  poet  had  quite  recently  fallen 
into  debt,  lawful  debt  which  in  truth  and  conscience 
he  intended  to  pay.  We  may  observe,  in  this  connec- 
tion, that  the  time  when  he  was  assessed  towards  the 
Subsidy  was  also  the  time  when  his  parents  were  deep 
in  their  unfortunate  Chancery  suit.^ 

*  For  particulars  of  the  above  assessment,  see  Hunter,  op.  cit.y  i.  77-80. 


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SHAKESPEARE'S  DESCENDANTS— 
HIS  DEATH  AND  WILL 


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SHAKESPEARE'S  DESCENDANTS— 
HIS  DEATH  AND    WILL 

I 

SHAKESPEARE'S  FAMILY — MARRIAGE  OF  SUSANNA  SHAKESPEARE 
TO  JOHN  HALL — DISPOSAL  OF  SHAKESPEARE'S  REAL  PRO- 
PERTY— THE   poet's   legacy   TO   HIS   WIFE 

SHAKESPEARE'S  eldest  child,  Susanna,  was 
baptised  at  Stratford  Parish  Church,  on  Trinity 
Sunday,  May  26th,  1583.  The  twins,  Hamnet  and 
Judith,  were  born  about  the  end  of  January,  1585,  by 
modern  reckoning.  Their  baptism  took  place  on 
Tuesday,  the  2nd  of  February,  1584-5,  being  the 
Festival  of  the  Purification.  It  is  generally  supposed 
that  the  children  were  named  after  some  of  the  god- 
parents, and  that  the  twins  must  have  had  Mr.  Hamnet 
Sadler  and  his  wife  Judith  among  their  sponsors.  The 
name  Hamnet  seems  to  have  been  accepted  as  equiva- 
lent to  Hamlet,  and  Mr.  Sadler  himself  appears  under 
the  latter  name  in  Shakespeare's  will.  Malone  points 
out  that  in  the  entry  of  his  burial,  in  1624,  he  is  called 
**  Hamlet  Sadler."  **  The  name  of  Hamlet,"  he  adds, 
**  occurs  in  several  other  entries  in  the  register."  He 
instances  an  entry  as  to  the  death  of  Catharina,  wife 
of  Hamoletus  Hassal,  in  1564,  and  another  as  to 
—  223 


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224       SHAKESPEARE'S   DESCENDANTS 

Hamlet,  son  of  Humphry  Holdar,  who  was  buried  in 
1576,  and  points  out  that  Mr.  Hamlet  Smith  was  one 
of  the  benefactors  publicly  commemorated  at  Strata 
ford.  The  legend  of  the  Prince  of  Denmark  is  shown 
to  have  been  commonly  known  by  Nash's  reference  in 
his  preface  to  Greene's  Menaphon:  **  English  Seneca 
read  by  candle-light  yields  many  good  sentences,  as 
Blood  is  a  beggar^  and  so  forth ;  and  if  you  entreat 
him  fair  in  a  frosty  morning,  he  will  afford  you  whole 
Hamlets^  1  should  say  handfuls  of  tragical  speeches."^ 
It  is  possible,  however,  that  the  names  of  Susanna  and 
Judith  Shakespeare  were  chosen  from  the  Apocrypha, 
to  which  the  poet  made  constant  references.  We  have 
the  picture  of  **god  Bel's  priests  in  the  old  church- 
window,"*  and  Holofernes  choosing  the  part  of  Judas 
Maccaba&us ;  ^  and  Sir  Toby  is  made  to  sing  a  line 
from  a  dull  song  about  Joachim  and  his  wife,  **  There 
dwelt  a  man  in  Babylon,  lady,  lady  ! "  * 

A  bare  entry  in  the  register  tells  us  that  Hamnet 
died  before  he  was  twelve  years  old,  the  date  of  his 
burial  being  the  nth  of  August,  1596.  Mr.  John 
Shakespeare  died  in  1601,  his  funeral  taking  place  on 
September  8th.  It  is  not  known  whether  he  left  a 
will,  but  it  appears  that  his  eldest  son  inherited  the 
dwelling-house  in  Henley  Street.  Mrs.  Mary  Shake- 
speare probably  lived  on  there  till  her  death  in  1608, 
and  the  residence  was  afterwards  occupied  by  Mr.  Hart, 
who  had  married  Joan  Shakespeare.  His  death  oc- 
curred only  a  few  days  before  that  of  Shakespeare, 
whose  will  contained  the  following  provisions  in  his 
sister's  favour :  **  I  give  and  bequeath  unto  my  said 
sister  Joan  ;^2o  and  all  my  wearing  apparel,  to  be  paid 
and  delivered  within  one  year  after  my  decease ;  and  I 

^  Menaphon^  ed.  Arber,  p.  9. 
^  Much  Ado  aboui  Nothing-,  iii.  3,  143-4. 
'  Love's  Labour  s  Lost,  v.  i,  133-4. 
*  Twelfth  Night,  ii.  2,  84. 


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SUSANNA  SHAKESPEARE'S  MARRIAGE     225 

do  will  and  devise  unto  her  the  house  with  the  appur- 
tenances in  Stratford,  wherein  she  dwelleth,  for  her 
natural  life,  under  the  yearly  rent  of  twelve-pence," 
In  an  earlier  part  of  the  will  he  had  also  given  her  a 
contingent  legacy  in  case  his  daughter  Judith  died 
without  issue  during  the  term  of  three  years  from  his 
decease.  He  also  gave  ;^5  apiece  to  her  three  sons 
William,  Thomas,  and  Michael,  then  aged  about 
fifteen,  eleven,  and  eight  years  old  respectively.  The 
Christian  name  of  the  second  boy  was  accidentally 
omitted  in  the  will. 

Susanna  Shakespeare  was  married  to  Mr.  John  Hall 
on  the  5th  of  June,  1607 ;  their  daughter  Elizabeth 
was  baptised  on  the  21st  of  February  following.  They 
lived  in  a  street  called  Old  Town,  not  far  from  the 
church.  Mr.  Hall  was  a  gentleman  by  births  bear- 
ing the  "three  talbots"  in  his  shield  ;  but  the  coat  of 
arms  on  his  tomb  is  not  so  accurately  displayed  as  to 
show  the  particular  family  of  Halls  to  which  he  be- 
longed.^ It  is  thought  that  he  came  from  Acton,  in 
Middlesex,  where  he  owned  a  house  which  he  left  to 
his  daughter.  We  first  hear  of  him  as  a  medical 
practitioner  at  Stratford,  where  he  attained  a  great 
reputation  ;  and  it  appears  that  he  was  usually  known 
as  Doctor  Hall,  though  he  had  not  taken  a  medical 
degree.  How  easily  a  diploma  might  have  been  ob- 
tained is  shown  by  a  passage  in  Ward's  Diary:  **  Mr. 
Burnet  had  a  letter  out  of  the  Low  Countries  of  the 
charge  of  a  doctor's  degree,  which  is  at  Leyden  about 
sixteen  pounds,  besides  feasting  the  professors,  at 
Angers,  in  France,  not  above  nine  pounds,  and  feast- 
ing not  necessary  neither."  ^ 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hall  and  their  daughter  were  the  chief 
beneficiaries  under  Shakespeare's  will.     The  residue 

*  Mrs.  C.  C.  Slopes,  Shakespeare's  Family ^  190 1,  p.  97,  gives  the  coat 
as  '*  Sable  three  talbots'  heads  erased  or." 
'  Ward's  Diary ^  ed.  Severn,  1839,  p.  12. 

Q 


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226      SHAKESPEARE'S  DESCENDANTS 

of  the  personalty,  after  certain  specific  legacies,  was 
given  in  these  words:  **A11  the  rest  of  my  goods, 
chattels,  leases,  etc.,  I  give,  devise,  and  bequeath  to 
my  son-in-law,  John  Hall,  gent.,  and  my  daughter 
Susanna,  his  wife,  whom  I  ordain  and  make  executors 
of  my  last  will  and  testament."  The  superintendence 
of  the  trusts  was  given  to  Mr.  Thomas  Russell,  of 
Stratford,  and  Mr.  Francis  Collins,  the  lawyer  from 
Warwick  by  whom  the  will  was  prepared.  The  list 
of  legacies  included  £$  to  Mr.  Russell,  and  £13. 6s.  &/., 
or  forty  nobles,  to  Mr.  Collins.  Elizabeth  Hall, 
whom  the  testator  calls  his  ^' niece,*'  was  to  have  all 
the  plate  belonging  to  him  at  the  date  of  the  will, 
except  the  broad  silver-gilt  bowl,  left  to  his  daughter 
Judith.  Mr.  Thomas  Combe  had  the  poet's  sword, 
and  money  for  mourning  rings  was  given  to  ''  Hamlett 
Sadler,"  William  Raynoldes,  Antony  Nashe,  John 
Nashe,  and  to  **my  fellows"  John  '*Hemynges," 
Richard  Burbage,  and  Henry  Cundell,  each  receiving 
four  nobles,  or  26^.  8d. :  and  twenty  shillings  in  gold 
to  the  poet's  godson,  William  Walker.  His  daughter 
Judith  had  legacies  amounting  to  ;^300  in  all,  with 
interest  at  ten  per  cent,  until  payment.  Her  marriage- 
portion  accounted  for  a  third  part  of  the  amount. 
Fifty  pounds  was  given  on  condition  that  she  gave  up 
all  her  interest  in  the  Rowington  copyhold.  The  re- 
maining payment  of  ;f  150  was  to  be  held  in  suspense 
for  a  term  of  three  years  ;  if  she  survived  that  period, 
she  had  it  settled  on  her  and  her  children,  unless  and 
until  her  husband  should  settle  land  of  a  correspond- 
ing value ;  if  she  died  without  issue  during  that  period, 
the  money  was  to  be  given  to  Elizabeth  Hall  and  Joan 
Hart  and  her  children  in  the  shares  and  under  the 
provisions  mentioned  in  the  will. 

The  real  estate  consisted  of  the  residence  in  Henley 
Street  and  the  inn  adjoining,  the  mansion  and  grounds 
at  New  Place,  with  the  copyhold  cottage,  the  **four 


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HIS   LEGACIES  TO  THE   HALLS        227 

and  a  half  yard-lands  "  in  the  open  fields  of  Stratford, 
Bishopton,  and  Welcombe,  and  the  house  near  the 
King's  Wardrobe  at  Blackfriars,  then  in  the  occupa- 
tion of  John  Robinson.  Nothing  was  said  about  Mrs. 
Anne  Shakespeare's  right  to  dower,  or  her  right  to 
keep  the  copyhold  during  her  life ;  but  subject  to  her 
rights,  and  subject  to  the  devise  in  favour  of  Joan 
Hart>  all  this  real  estate  was  settled  upon  Mrs.  Hall 
for  her  life,  with  an  entail  in  favour  of  her  sons,  down 
to  the  seventh,  which  never  took  effect:  **and  for 
default  of  such  issue,"  the  will  proceeds,  ''the  said 
premises  to  be  and  remain  to  my  said  niece  Hall,  and 
the  heirs  males  of  her  body  lawfully  issuing."  This 
entail  was  afterwards  barred,  and  a  new  settlement 
executed ;  but  as  the  will  stood,  Judith  had  the  next 
place  in  the  entail,  with  a  final  gift  to  the  testator's 
heirs. 

.  The  gift  to  Mrs.  Shakespeare  was  inserted  as  an 
interlineation,  as  if  it  were  an  afterthought.  **  I  give 
unto  my  wife  my  second  best  bed,  with  the  furniture." 
The  omission  to  notice  his  wife  in  any  other  way  need 
not  be  attributed  to  any  want  of  respect  or  affection  on 
the  testator's  part.  It  has  been  pointed  out  that  the 
gifts  of  mourning-rings  to  his  three  ''fellows"  were 
also  interlined,  and  that  he  certainly  intended  no  mark 
of  disrespect  as  far  as  they  were  concerned.  The  true 
explanation  is  probably  that  which  was  suggested  by 
Mr.  Halliwell-Phillipps.  He  speaks  of  the  possibility 
of  Mrs.  Shakespeare  having  been  afflicted  with  some 
"chronic  infirmity  of  a  nature  that  precluded  all  hope 
of  recovery."  He  proceeds:  "In  such  a  case, .to 
relieve  her  from  household  anxieties  and  select  a 
comfortable  apartment  at  New  Place,  where  she  would 
be  under  the  care  of  an  affectionate  daughter  and  an 
experienced  physician,  would  have  been  the  wisest  and 
kindest   measure   that    could   have    been    adopted." 

>  Halliwell-Phillipps,  ChOitnes,  i.  261. 


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228       SHAKESPEARE'S   DESCENDANTS 

If  Mrs.  Shakespeare  was  incompetent  to  manage  her 
own  afFairSy  there  would  be  no  formal  assignment  of 
dower,  or  claim  to  a  widow's  estate,  in  the  copyhold ; 
and  the  legacy  itself  would  in  such  case  be  no  mere 
formality,  but  rather  a  gift  of  some  importance  to  one 
whose  wealth  consisted  of  ''the  bed  and  the  cup  and 
the  fire."^  Mrs.  Hall  placed  a  strange  inscription  over 
her  mother's  grave  a  few  years  afterwards.  ''Here 
lieth  interred  the  body  of  Anne,  wife  of  William  Shake- 
speare, who  departed  this  life  the  6th  day  of  August, 
1623,  being  of  the  age  of  67  years."  The  inscription 
proceeds  with  six  lines  of  Latin  verse,  to  the  effect 
that  the  spirit  as  well  as  the  body  was  held  in  the 
sepulchre.  "Ubera  tu,  mater,"  it  commences:  "A 
mother's  bosom  thou  gavest,  and  milk,  and  life ;  for 
such  bounty,  alas  I  can  I  only  render  stones  I  Rather 
would  I  pray  the  good  angel  to  roll  away  the  stone 
from  the  mouth  of  the  tomb,  that  thy  spirit,  even  as 
the  body  of  Christ,  should  go  forth  "  ;  and  the  hope  is 
expressed  that  Christ  may  quickly  come,  so  that  the 
imprisoned  soul   may   be  able  "to  seek  the  stars."* 

^  There  was  no  question  here  of  the  heirlooms  or  priciputs^  which 
were  so  well  known  in  Wales,  Brittany,  and  Flanders.  In  the  district  of 
Archenfield,  south-west  of  Hereford,  the  lands  were  inherited  by  all  the 
sons ;  but  the  eldest  had  certain  customary  **  principals,"  such  as  the 
best  table,  the  best  bed  and  furniture,  and  so  forth.  This  custom  was 
found  to  be  a  relic  of  certain  Welsh  laws,  referred  to  in  Domesday  Book. 
A  similar  orig-in  was  found  for  the  custom  of  the  Hundred  of  Stretford, 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  Wye,  where  the  eldest  son  was  entitled  to 
keep  as  '' principals"  the  best  wag-g-on  and  plough,  the  best  table  or 
chair,  the  best  bed,  the  best  of  the  chests,  cups,  and  platters,  and  other 
classes  of  chattels.  There  is  no  indication  that  any  such  custom  ever 
prevailed  at  Stratford-upon-Avon,  or  in  the  manor,  liberty,  and  hundred 
in  which  the  borough  was  comprised. 

'  The  lines,  read  at  length,  but  with  the  original  stopping^,  are  as 
follows  :  {( vbera,  tu  mater,  tu  lac,  vitamque  dedisti. 

Vs  mihi.  pro  tanto  munere  saxa  dabo  ? 

Quam  mallem,  amoueat  lapidem,  bonus  angelus  ore 

Exeat  ut,  Christi  corpus  imago  tua. 

Sed  nil  vota  valent  venias  cito  Christe  j  resurget 

Clausa  licet  tumulo  mater  et  astra  petet" 


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MRS.  SHAKESPEARE  229 

Mr.  Ward  may  have  been  much  struck  with  this 
epitaph.  His  Diary  contains  religious  meditations 
upon  the  Angels  at  the  Sepulchre  :  in  another  passage 
he  reflects  that  Heaven  has  verbera  as  well  as  vbera^ 
and  can  punish  as  well  as  show  mercy.^  The  first 
part  of  the  inscription  is  certainly  in  a  very  unusual 
form.  The  mother's  care  for  her  infant  is  treated  as 
a  matter  of  high  importance,  but  nothing  is  said  about 
the  rest  of  her  life.  In  this  respect  it  may,  perhaps, 
have  been  modelled  upon  an  epitaph  at  Lucca,  to  be 
found  in  the  Hortus  Inscriptionum  of  Otto  Aicher.  A 
son  asks  his  father  to  accept  a  funeral  in  return  for  the 
gift  of  life:  *'Tu  mihi  das  lucem  vitae,  do  mortis 
honores."^  But  the  exclusive  reference  to  the  earliest 
cares  of  motherhood  may  very  well  point  to  a  subse- 
quent incapacity  for  later  duties  as  the  mother  of  a 
household. 

Returning  to  the  subject  of  Shakespeare's  will,  it  is 
to  be  observed  that  it  was  made  up  from  an  earlier 
draft,  as  appears  by  the  erasures  and  interlineations. 
It  has  been  supposed  that  it  was  drawn  up  in  the 
January  preceding  the  poet's  death,  owing  to  the  title 
having  contained  the  word  "Januarii,"  altered  to 
**  Martii."  The  heading  as  it  now  stands,  when  trans- 
lated, is  to  the  effect  that  the  date  of  the  document  was 
the  25th  of  March,  in  the  fourteenth  year  of  King 
James'  reign  in  England,  and  its  forty-ninth  year 
in  Scotland,  and  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1616.  The 
25th  of  March  was  the  first  day  of  the  legal  year  1616, 
and  the  second  day  of  the  fourteenth  regnal  year  of 
King  James ;  so  that  if  it  had  ever  been  intended  to 
execute  the  will  on  the  25th  of  January,  the  whole 
frame  of  the  heading  would  have  been  different. 

^  Ward's  Diary y  u,s.,  pp.  214-5;  P*  ^^^  '^^  ^^^  latter  passag-e  is 
added  the  reflection,  "Subito  tolUtur,  qui  diu  toleratur." 

'  Aicher,  Hortus  Variarum  Inscriptionum^  etc.,  Salisburgi,  1676, 
i.  403-4.     (Liica  in  S.  Salvaiore,     Filius  Patri.) 


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<■ 


230      SHAKESPEARE'S   DESCENDANTS 

The  will  was  duly  signed  and  published  on  the  25th 
of  March,  the  witnesses  to  the  publication,  as  then 
required  by  law,  being  Mr.  Collins,  the  lawyer  from 
Warwick,  and  Julius  Shaw,  John  Robinson,  Hamnet 
Sadler,  and  Robert  Whatcot,^  all  of  Stratford.  It  was 
duly  proved  in  London  by  Mr.  Hall,  on  the  2nd  of 
June  following,  power  being  reserved  for  his  wife  to 
come  in  and  prove,  if  necessary. 


II 

SHAKESPEARE'S  DEATH  —  DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  STRATFORD 
MONUMENT — DETAILED  NOTES  ON  THE  EPITAPH— JOHN 
hall:    its    POSSIBLE    AUTHOR 

On  the  23rd  of  April,  Shakespeare  died  of  the  fever 
mentioned  by  Mr.  Ward.  Of  **low  typhoid  fever," 
says  Dr.  Severn  in  his  edition  of  the  vicar's  Dtary^ 
''which  clings  to  the  sickening  heart,  and  fastens  on 
the  pallid  brow  for  days  and  weeks,  and  sometimes  for 
months  together."^  It  is  plain  that  it  was  thought 
to  be  contagious,  since  the  funeral  took  place  on  the 
25th.  The  grave  was  in  the  chancel,  but  there  was  no 
vault  or  brickwork — nothing,  indeed,  but  his  male- 
diction to  protect  his  **  house  of  clay."  He  lay  close 
to  the  door  that  led  to  the  bone-vault,  and  he  dreaded, 
no  doubt,  that  his  place  would  be  required  for  another 
tithe-owner  and  his  remains  be  cast  aside:  ''Not 
a  friend,  not  a  friend  greet  my  poor  corpse,  where 
my  bones  shall  be  thrown."'  We  know  that  his 
hope  was  fulfilled ;  but  it  was  only  because  no 
one  dared  "to  move  the  maladictive  stones."  A 
tradition  arose  among  the  clerks  and  sextons  that, 
to  carry  out  his   wishes,   he   was    buried  seventeen 

^  *' Whattcott"  in  orig'inal  signature. 

^  Ward's  Diary,  «.*.,  p.  68,  "  Twelfth  Night,  ii.  4,  63. 


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HIS  DEATH  231 

feet  deep.  It  is  all  but  a  hundred  years  ago  that 
the  workmen  building  a  vault  were  able  to  look 
through  an  opening  into  his  grave,  and  saw  nothing 
but  a  hollow  space,  with  no  signs  of  the  earth  having 
been  touched.  We  know,  however,  that  his  appre- 
hensions were  justified  by  what  happened  afterwards 
to  the  grave  of  his  daughter  Susanna  and  the  plun- 
dered vault  of  his  little  '^  niece  Elisabeth." 

The  monument  in  Stratford  Church  was  erected 
either  in  or  before  1623.  The  reference  by  Leonard 
Digges,  in  his  commendatory  verses  prefixed  to  the 
first  Folio,  although  very  general,  shows  that  he  knew 
of  such  a  work  by  November  in  that  year.^  There 
is  no  reason  to  doubt  Dugdale's  statement  that  the 
whole  monument  was  the  work  of  Gerard  Johnson  of 
Southwark,  the  son  of  a  tomb-cutter  from  Amsterdam.^ 
Johnson  had  been  employed  in  1614  to  erect  the 
monument,  in  the  east  wall  of  the  chancel,  to  Mr.  John 
Combe.  It  seems  probable,  from  the  date  and  lettering 
of  the  inscription  on  Mrs.  Shakespeare's  brass  plate, 
that  this  sculptor  came  to  set  up  Shakespeare's  me- 
morial in  the  autumn  of  1623,  and  added  the  lines 
in  honour  of  his  wife.  Her  grave  was  interposed 
between  the,  north  wall  of  the  chancel  and  the  grave 
of  her  husband,  so  that  the  blessing  and  the  curse 
inscribed  on  his  place  of  burial  protected  her  remains 
as  well. 

The  bust  on  the  monument,  in  its  present  state,  can 
hardly  be  regarded  as  a  portrait,  although  Mr.  Halli- 
well-Phillipps  held  that  a  copy  of  the  whitened  figure 
was  the  best  memorial  of  Shakespeare  that  the  public 
could    then    possess,    ''being   so   much    superior   in 

'  **  When  that  stone  is  rent, 
And  Time  dissolves  thy  Stratford  moniment, 
Here  we  alive  shall  view  thee  still." 
*  Dugdale,  Diary ^  ed.  W.  Hamper,  F.S.A.,   1827,  p.  99.     "Gerard 
Johnson  "  is,  of  course,  merely  the  Ang-licised  form  of  Geraert  Janssen. 
See  Diet  Nat  Bicg:,  vol.  xxix.,  s,v,  Janssen. 


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232       SHAKESPEARE'S   DESCENDANTS 

authenticity  to  any  other  resemblance."^  The  white- 
washing, he  said,  *'did  not  altogether  obliterate  the 
semblance  of  an  intellectual  human  being,"  but  when 
it  was  coloured  again  in  1861,  he  considered  that  it 
became  *'a  miserable  travesty."  ''This  bust  was 
originally  coloured  to  resemble  life  .  .  .  the  eyes  being 
of  a  light  hazel,  and  the  hair  and  beard  auburn.  The 
dress  consisted  of  a  scarlet  doublet,  over  which  was 
a  loose  black  gown  without  sleeves."  ^  It  was  repainted 
in  1748  by  John  Hall  of  Stratford,  at  the  expense 
of  John  Ward,  the  actor,  grandfather  of  the  Kembles 
and  their  sister,  Mrs.  Siddons.  Ward  gave  the  pro- 
ceeds of  a  performance  of  Othello  at  the  Town  Hall  to 
this  object  in  September,  1746.  In  1793  it  was  painted 
white,  at  the  suggestion  of  Malone.  ''Stranger,  to 
whom  this  Monument  is  shown,"  runs  the  famous 
inscription  (1810)  in  the  visitor's  book,  "  Invoke  the 
Poet's  curse  upon  Malone."  In  1861  little  retouching 
was  found  necessary,  for  when  the  bust  was  immersed 
in  a  carefully  prepared  bath,  the  old  colours  reappeared 
with  some  distinctness.  The  bust  is  so  unlike  the 
Droeshout  print  in  the  first  Folio,  or  the  portrait,  now 
at  Stratford,  from  which  that  print  was  probably  copied, 
that  the  presentments  might  well  belong  to  diflferent 
persons.  The  great  surgeon,  John  Bell,  when  he  saw 
the  coloured  bust,  and  Sir  Francis  Chantrey,  who 
examined  it  when  coated  with  white  paint,  both  said 

^  Notes  and  Queries^  25th  October,  1851.  In  OuUinesy  i.  297,  the  same 
statement  of  authenticity  is  repeated  on  behalf  of  this  and  the  Dtx)eshout 
frontispiece  of  the  first  Folio. 

^  R.  B.  Wheler,  History  and  Antiquities  of  Siratford-on^Avon,  1806, 
p.  71.  Severn  (Ward's  Diary ^  pp.  71-2)  thus  describes  the  form  of  the 
monument.  The  bust  is  **  inarched  between  two  Corinthian  columns  of 
black  marble,  with  g-ilded  bases  and  capitals,  with  a  cushion  before  him, 
a  pen  in  his  right  hand,  and  his  left  resting  on  a  scroll.  Above  the 
entablature  are  his  armorial  bearings,"  etc.  A  young  Oxonian,  about 
a  century  ago,  while  on  a  visit  to  Dr.  Davenport  at  the  vicarage,  took 
the  original  stone  pen  from  the  poet's  hand ;  while  trifling  with  it  be  let 
it  fall,  and  it  was  shivered  to  atoms.    A  quill  pen  now  occupies  the  place. 


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HISTORY  OF  HIS   MONUMENT         233 

that  they  saw  traces  of  the  use  of  a  mask.  Some  man's 
face  had  been  mechanically  copied ;  but  they  expressed 
no  opinion  as  to  whether  that  man  was  Shakespeare. 
Not  many  years  after  the  bust  was  set  up  the  church 
was  subjected  to  a  course  of  vile  injury,  which  must 
have  lessened  the  value  of  the  memorial  as  a  portrait. 
The  vicarage  of  Stratford  was  held  from  1619  to  1638 — 
or,  according  to  Wheler's  list,  till  1640 — by  the  Rev. 
Thomas  Wilson,  b.d.  In  1635,  Archbishop  Laud's  vicar- 
general  visited  Warwickshire.  The  Commissioners 
suspended  Mr.  Wilson  of  Stratford  **for  grossly  par- 
ticularising in  his  sermons,  for  suffering  hts  pouUry  to 
roost,  and  his  hogs  to  lodge  in  the  Chancel^  for  walking 
in  the  church  to  con  his  sermon  in  time  of  Divine 
Service,"  etc.  The  suspension  was  to  last,  subject  to 
Laud's  agreement,  for  only  three  months,  since  Mr. 
Wilson  promised  amendment,  and  was  said  ''to  be 
a  very  good  scholar,  and  was  the  son  of  a  very  grave 
conformable  Doctor  of  Divinity."^ 

The  English  inscription  below  the  bust  is  of  a  very 
conventional  type.  This  and  the  Latin  couplet  above,^ 
may  be  ascribed  to  Mr.  Hall,  Shakespeare's  son-in- 
law,  whose  Latin  style  is  known  to  have  been  concise 
and  fairly  correct.*    The  preliminary  couplet,  it  must 

^  Calendar  of  Domestic  State  Papers  for  1635,  ed.  Bruce.     See  tran- 
script in  preface,  p.  xl.    The  abstract  itself,  made  by  Sir  Nathaniel  Brent 
as  vicar-g-eneral,  bears  date  i6th  July  (Dom.  Car.  i.  ccxciii.,  No.  128). 
^  Ivdtcio  Pylivm,  genio  Socratem,  arte  Maronem, 

Terra  tegit,  popvivs  msret,  Olympvs  habet. 
Stay  Passenger,  why  goest  thou  by  so  fast  ? 
Read  if  thou  canst,  whom  envious  Death  hath  plast. 
With  in  this  monument  Shakspeare  :  with  whome, 
Quick  nature  dide  :  whose  name,  doth  deck  this  Tombe, 
Far  more,  then  cost :  Sith  all,  that  He  hath  writt. 
Leaves  living  art,  but  page,  to  serve  his  witt. 
'  Elze,  William  Shakespeare^  Eng.  trans.,  508-9;  Brandes,  William 
Shakespeare^  Eng.  trans.,  ii.  410,  consider  Hall's  authorship  probable. 
Halliwell-Phillipps,  u,s.y  t.  285,  says :  '*It  is  not  likely  that  these  verses 
were  composed  either  by  a  Stratfordian,  or  by  any  one  acquainted  with 
their  destined  position." 


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234       SHAKESPEARE'S   DESCENDANTS 

be  confessed,  has  somewhat  of  a  Dutch  complexion. 
The  phrase  '^  Olympus  habet"  is  remarkably  like  the 
wording  of  an  inscription  once  in  the  church  of  St. 
Vitus  at  Leeuwarden.  The  church  has  been  de- 
stroyed ;  but  the  epitaphs  are  probably  preserved  in 
the  old  tower  that  formed  the  belfry.  The  capital  of 
Friesland  was  famous  for  quaint  epitaphs,  and  was 
reported,  indeed,  to  possess  no  other  attractions. 
Father  Aicher  was  a  monk  at  Leeuwarden  before  he 
became  a  Professor  at  Salzburg,  and  we  find  in  his 
collection  a  Frisian  epitaph  on  one  Peter  Tyara,  whose 
body  lay  in  the  earth,  while  **  Olympus  "  had  taken  his 
soul.  The  verses  may  also  be  found  in  the  Itinerary 
of  Gotfried  Hegenitius,  printed  at  Leyden  in  1630  by 
the  Elzevirs.^  To  come  nearer  home,  there  was  a 
tomb  in  the  Church  of  St.  Martin's  Outwich,  at 
the  junction  of  Threadneedle  Street  and  Bishopsgate 
Street,  set  up  in  memory  of  Jacob  Falck,  Treasurer  of 
Zealand,  and  Ambassador  from  the  United  Provinces 
to  King  James ;  he  died  in  1603,  ^^^  ^"^  ^^^  ^^  ^^^ 
epitaphs,  composed  by  A.  Hunter,  we  find  the  same 
phrase  about  Olympus.^  This  church  was  close  to 
Crosby  Hall,  and  to  the  house  in  which  Shakespeare 
may  have  resided.  We  might  go  abroad,  however, 
and  still  find  the  idea  recurring.  Welcker,  for  instance, 
published  a  collection  of  Greek  inscriptions  in  1828, 
and  among  others  he  copied  an  epitaph  found  on  a 
sarcophagus  in  the  square  by  the  Great  Mosque  at 
Nicosia ;  ^  and  in  this  instance  also  we  find  something 

^  Aicher,  op.  cit^  i.  414,   Leovardice  in  mde  S.  K«/f  (No.  4^:  "Corpus 
habet  terrain,  Sibi  mentem  sumpsit  Olympus.*'    G.  Hegeniti  lUturarium 
Frisio'Hollandicum^  Lu^d.  Batavor.,  1630,  p.  33. 
^  Stow,  Survey  of  London j  ed.  Strype,  1720,  bk.  ii.  p.  118  : 
"Quae  natat  Oceano  Zelandia  corpus,  Olympus 
Ipse  animam,  peregri  hoc  viscera  marmor  habet." 

A.  Huntenis. 
'  F.  T.  Welcker,  Sylloge  Epigrammatum    Grcecorum,    Bonnse,   182S, 
p.  41,  No.  34 :  "  EAy  Tpox^V^  palwjfs,  wapodHra,  pcu^p  iwlrxov,**  etc. 


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HIS  EPITAPH  235 

about  the  soul  being  caught  into  Olympus,  and  an 
opening  almost  identical  with  the  Shakespearean 
**Stay,  passenger,  why  dost  thou  go  so  fast?"  Was 
it  then  from  London,  or  from  Friesland,  or,  with  far 
less  likelihood,  from  the  isle  of  Cyprus,  that  Mr.  Hall 
derived  his  Olympian  metaphor?  It  probably  came 
from  none  of  these  sources  by  any  course  that  could  be 
directly  traced.  Mr.  Ward  quotes  an  epitaph  from 
Warwick  to  the  effect  that  death  takes  not  all,  **for 
his  heavenly  part  hath  sought  the  heavens,  and  his 
fame  lives  immortal  on  earth " ;  ^  and  there  was  an- 
other old  epitaph  of  the  same  class  in  Stratford  Church 
itself.  We  should  take  these  into  account,  with  what 
has  been  stated  about  St.  Martin's  Outwich,  and  with 
what  Hall  may  probably  have  read  in  the  works  of  a 
Puritan  poet.  Some  of  the  classical  writers  had 
chosen  Olympus,  instead  of  Parnassus,  as  the  Muses' 
home ;  and  Francis  Rous  had  revived  the  idea  in  his 
Spenserian  monody.  One  of  the  concluding  stanzas 
of  his  Thule  represents  a  mourner  left  on  earth  by  the 
envious  Fates  to  weep  alone  after  a  poet's  departure ; 
and  it  is  probable  that  the  phrase  on  Shakespeare's 
tomb  was  directly  taken  from  this  source : — 

"here  to  remaine, 
Where  with  lamenting  noyse  she  plaineth  still, 
Yet  never  can  her  plaints  bring  back  againe 
That  soul  which  mounted  on  Olympus  hill, 
In  sacred  spirits  and  the  Muses  tralne, 
Singing  soule-pleasing  tunes  her  dayes  doth  spend, 
Whose  musick  and  whose  dayes  have  never  end."^ 


i< 


The  earth  covers  him,  the  people  mourns  him." 
**  Populus  maeret"  ;  the  whole  nation  is  in  grief.  Mr. 
Ward  moralised  on  the  populus :    **One  says  thus, 

*  Ward's  Diary ^  p.  286 :  *•  Scd  non  totus  obit,  pctiit  pars  caeltca  cselum, 
VivU  et  in  terris,  nescia  fama  mori." 

'  ThtiUy  or  Vertues  Histories  by  Francis  Rous,  printed  for  the  Spenser 
Society,  1878,  p.  151  (bk.  ii.  canto  8.). 


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236       SHAKESPEARE'S   DESCENDANTS 

from  the  populus,  that  is,  the  people,  what  can  bee  ex- 
pected but  uncertaintie?  as  in  the  populus,  or  aspen  tree, 
there  is  no  shade,  but  the  leaves  are  allways  playing."  ^ 
The  first  line  of  the  couplet  has  been  hardly  treated 
by  the  commentators.  Even  Pope  was  so  careless  as 
to  read  **ingenio"  instead  of  **judicio"  at  its  com- 
mencement. **  Judicio  Pylium  "  refers  to  the  wisdom 
of  the  Pylian  chieftain,  or  **sage  Nestor's  counsels," 
if  we  borrow  Ben  Jonson's  phrase.  The  epithet  of 
**  Pylian"  comes  from  Ovid,^  and  was  thereby  the 
more  appropriate  to  the  poet  who  made  such  faithful 
use  of  the  Metamorphoses  that  **the  sweet,  witty  soul 
of  Ovid  lives  in  mellifluous  and  honey-tongued  Shake- 
speare."' He  had  the  skill  of  Maro,  of  Virgil,  "the 
master  of  the  Epic,"  and  the  ''genius,"  or  inborn 
power,  of  Socrates.  ''Genio  Socratem":  the  proper 
name  contains  an  evident  false  quantity,  for  no  one 
will  deny  that  the  first  vowel  was  originally  long. 
Proper  names,  however,  were  constantly  altered  to 
suit  the  hard  rules  of  prosody,  long  syllables  being 
made  short,  and  short  sounds  lengthened,  for  greater 
ease  in  poetry.  The  ''Danaides"  could  never  have 
appeared  in  a  hexameter  if  their  first  vowel  had  not 
received  an  extra  weight ;  and  Silius  Italicus  was 
allowed  a  similar  licence  when  he  was  forced  to 
mention  "-^tolides."  We  may  find  a  great  number 
of  such  cases  by  referring  to  the  old  grammarians, 
as  Urban  of  Belluno  or  the  Patronymica  of  Father 
Spadafora,  published  at  Palermo  in  1668.^    In  the  last 

^  Ward's  Diary ^  p.  291. 

2  Ovid,  Am,  lii.  7,  41  :  **IUius  ad  tactum  Pylius  iuvenescere  possit" ; 
id,y  Ex  Ponto,  i.  4,  10 :  **  Pylio  Nestore  maior  ero."  See  also  the  more 
familiar  passag-e  in  Horace,  Carm,^  i.  15,  22:  "  Non  Pylium  Nestora 
respicis  ?  " 

'  F.  Meres,  Palladis  Tamia  (in  Arber,  English  Garner^  ii.  97). 

*  Spadafora,  Patronymica  Grttca^  et  Latina^  etc. ,  a  P,  Placido  Spatha- 
fora  (5.  y.),  Panormi,  1668.  See  preface  ex  Urhani  Bellunensis  Gram- 
matical and  p.  183  (D^n^tdes,  vel  prima  ob  necessitatem  producta). 
For  iCtOlides,  see  td,y  p.  8. 


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WORDING  OF  HIS  EPITAPH  237 

instance  we  get  very  near  the  solecism  of  the  Stratford 
monument,  for  in  speaking  of  the  philosopher's  son  as 
**Socratides,"  the  author  indicates  by  a  special  mark 
that  the  first  vowel  might  be  used  as  long  or  short  at 
pleasure.^ 

The  point  is  so  far  important  that  it  caused  Steevens 
and  some  other  commentators  to  propose  the  insertion 
of  Sophocles  into  the  epitaph,  in  place  of  Socrates ; 
though  the  result  of  the  suggestion,  if  adopted,  would 
have  a  mere  triumph  of  sound  over  sense.  We  should, 
of  course,  lose  the  whole  force  of  the  allusion  to  the 
familiar  oracle  by  which  the  Greek  philosopher  had 
been  guided  in  the  path  of  wisdom.  Yet  it  is  obvious 
that  the  author  of  the  couplet  was  thinking  of  such 
a  "genius"  or  familiar,  as  is  so  often  mentioned  in 
the  plays.  "  The  Genius  and  the  mortal  instruments 
are  then  in  council,"  as  Brutus  said  ;  and  Troilus  talks 
of  the  genius  that  cries  *'  Come,"  when  one  must  die.^ 
Have  we  not  *Hhe  affably  familiar  ghost"  in  the 
eighty-sixth  Sonnet?  We  might  almost  say  that  there 
is  hardly  a  sonnet  that  does  not  indicate  the  influence 
of  such  a  spiritual  agency.  We  may  take  another 
illustration  from  Gabriel  Harvey's  Letters:  "And  yet 
have  I  on  suer  frende  as  harde  as  the  world  goith 
(I  meane  my  familiar,  the  Pheere  of  that  which 
attendid  uppon  M.  Phaer  in  Kylgarran  Forest  when 
he  translatid  Virgils  -^neidos)  .  .  .  that  never  yet 
faylid  me  at  a  pinche."*  The  "  Daemon  "  of  Socrates 
was  described  as  being  in  the  nature  of  an  oracle  or 
divine  monition,  giving  warning  of  evil.  "  I  should  like 
to  tell  you  of  a  wonderful  circumstance,"  said  the  phil- 
osopher in  the  Apology  of  Plato.  "Hitherto  the 
familiar  oracle  within  me  has  constantly  been  in  the 

^  Id,^  p.  96. 

^  Julius  Ccesaty  ii.  i,  66-7  ;  Troilus  and  Cressida^  iv.  4. 
»  Letter-Book  of  Gabriel  Harvey ^  ed.  E.  J.  L.  Scott  (Camden  Society), 
1884,  pp.  72-3. 


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238       SHAKESPEARE'S  DESCENDANTS 

habit  of  opposing  me,  even  about  trifles,  if  I  was  going 
to  make  a  slip  or  error  about  anything :  and  now,  as 
you  see,  there  has  come  upon  me  that  which  may  be 
thought,  and  is  generally  believed  to  be  the  last  and 
worst  end.  But  the  oracle  made  no  sign  of  opposition, 
either  as  I  was  leaving  my  house  and  going  out  in 
the  morning,  or  when  I  was  going  up  into  this  court, 
or  while  I  was  speaking,  at  an3rthing  I  was  going^ 
to  say ;  and  yet  I  have  often  been  stopped  in  the 
middle  of  a  speech,  but  now  in  nothing  I  either  said  or 
did  touching  this  matter  has  the  oracle  opposed  me."  ^ 

The  actual  ending  of  the  epitaph  is  faulty.  It  seems 
to  be  modelled  on  the  inscription  from  Warwick : 
"  Still  lives  on  earth  the  undying  fame."*  The  words 
*Miving  art"  are  taken  from  Lovers  Labour^ s  Lost^  but 
there  is  a  curious  change  in  their  application.  When 
the  King  of  Navarre  vowed  that  his  Court  should  be  a 
little  Academe,  ^' still  and  contemplative  in  living  art/' 
he  was  referring  his  young  Lords  to  the  contemplation 
of  an  Ars  Vivendi^  which  might  be  called  the  science 
of  right  action,  or  the  true  ** living  art."'  When  we 
are  told  that  **  quick  Nature  died,"  we  recognise  a 
true  Shakespearean  idea.  The  poet  had  imagined  the 
slaying  of  Death  :  '^  Death  once  dead,  there's  no  more 
dying  then."*  In  Venus  and  Adonis  he  foretold  the 
same  fate  for  Nature ;  she  is  condemned  for  forging 
the  moulds  divine;  she  is  to  perish  ''as  mountain- 
snow  melts  with  the  midday  sun  : — ^ 

''As  burning  fevers,  agues  pale  and  faint, 
Life-poisoning  pestilence  and  frenzies  wood, 
The  marrow-eating  sickness,  whose  attaint 
Disorder  breeds  by  heating  of  the  blood  : 
Surfeits,  imposthumes,  grief,  and  damn'd  despair. 
Swear  Nature's  death  for  framing  thee  so  fair."* 

^  Plato,  Apologia  Socratis,  40  A.  ^  See  p.  235,  note  i. 

'  Love* s  Labour's  Losty  u  i,  13-14.  *  Sonnet  cxlvL 

*   Venus  and  Adonis,  75a  '  Id,,  739-44. 


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JOHN  HALL  239 

**  Quick  "  means  more  than  living  ;  it  rather  imports 
vigour  and  liveliness,  as  of  the  ** quick  freshes"  in 
Prospero's  island,^  or  **so  green,  so  quick,  so  fair  an 
eye  as  Paris  hath."^  We  read  in  old  receipt-books  of 
** quick  oranges"  and  mixtures  that  taste  ** quick  of 
the  fruit."  We  may  compare  this  mention  of  "quick 
Nature"  with  the  personification  of  Nature  in  Jonson's 
poem  : — 

*'  Nature  herself  was  proud  of  his  designs, 
And  joyed  to  wear  the  dressing  of  his  lines  I 
Which  were  so  richly  spun,  and  woven  so  fit, 
As,  since,  she  will  vouchsafe  no  other  wit."^ 


^  ni 

JOHN     hall's    CASE-BOOKS — INFORMATION    WITtl    REGARD    TO 
HIS    WIFE   AND   DAUGHTER — HIS   WIDOW 

Mr.  Hall's  eminence  as  a  physician  is  shown  by  the 
records  of  remarkable  cures,  selected  by  himself  and 
afterwards  published  by  James  Cooke,  as  will  appear 
later.  The  extracts  following  will  be  found  in  Mr. 
Fennell's  Shakespeare  Repository^  Dr.  Bird,  at  one 
time  Linacre  Professor  at  Cambridge,  made  a  careful 
examination  of  Mr.  Hall's  professional  papers.  ''This 
learned  author,"  he  said,  *Mived  in  our  time  in  the 
County  of  Warwick,  where  he  practised  physic  many 
years,  in  great  fame  for  his  skill  far  and  near ;  those 
who  seemed  highly  to  esteem  him,  and  whom  by  God's 
blessing  he  wrought  these  cures  upon,  you  shall  find 
to  be  amongst  others  persons  noble,  rich,  and  learned  ; 
and  this  I  take  to  be  a  great  sign  of  his  ability."     Mr. 

*  Tempest^  iil  2,  75.  '  Romeo  and  Juliet  ^  iii.  5,  222-3. 

•  Jonson,  Underwoods^  xii. :  "  To  the  Memory  of  .  .  .  William 
Shakespeare." 

^  i853t  No.  2.  The  article  is  contained  in  a  few  columns,  so  that 
specific  references  are  needless. 


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240       SHAKESPEARE'S   DESCENDANTS 

Cooke  adds  in  his  preface  to  the  select  observations : 
"  It  seems  the  author  had  the  happiness  (if  I  may  so 
style  it)  to  lead  the  way  to  that  practice  almost  gener- 
ally used  by  the  most  knowing,  of  mixing  Scorbutics 
in  most  remedies :  It  was  then,  and  I  know  for  some 
time  after  thought  so  strange  that  it  was  cast  as  a 
reproach  upon  him  by  those  most  famous  in  his  pro- 
fession." We  suppose  that  he  learned  his  new 
methods  at  Paris  or  Montpellier  ;  Mr.  Cooke  remarked 
that  he  had  been  a  traveller,  and  was  acquainted  with 
the  French  language,  **as  appeared  by  part  of  some 
Observations,  which  I  got  help  to  make  English.** 

Mr.  Hall  was  a  Puritan,  and  many  of  his  patients 
were  Roman  Catholics;  but  even  ''such  as  hated  his 
religion  "  were  glad  to  avail  themselves  of  his  medical 
science.  His  case-books  begin  in  1617  with  entries  as 
to  William,  Lord  Compton,  who  became  Earl  of  North- 
ampton in  the  following  year.  Among  the  names 
of  the  patients  we  find  **  Mr.  Drayton,  an  excellent 
poet,'*  Dr.  Thomas  Holyoake,  son  of  "the  Mr.  Holy- 
oake  who  framed  the  Dictionary,'*^  and  Mr.  George 
Quiney,  the  curate,  **of  a  good  wit,  expert  in  tongues 
and  very  learned.**  Among  entries  possessing  a  local 
interest  we  may  notice  the  Stratford  goodwives, 
**  Goody  wife  Bets  **  and  Goody  Brown  ;  and  the  respect- 
able character  of  the  title  may  be  illustrated  by  Ward's 
notice  of  Goody  Roberts,  etc.,^  and  by  Queen  Anne 
of  Denmark's  ironical  habit  of  calling  her  daughter 
**  Goody  Palsgrave."  There  are  entries  as  to  Grace 
Court,  **wife  to  my  apothecary,"  Mr.  Nash*s  servant 
lying  at  the  Bear,  **  Browne,  a  Romish  priest,**  with 

'  Francis  Holyoake  (1567-1653),  rector  of  Sout&am,  Warwickshire, 
1604-42,  published  his  Dictionarium  Efymologicum  Laiinum  in  1633.  This 
was  enlarged  in  1677  by  his  son,  Thomas  Holyoake  (d.  1675),  chaplain 
of  Queen's  CoUeg-e,  Oxford,  and  prebendary  of  St.  Peter's  in  Wolver- 
hampton. The  son  was  himself  in  practice  as  a  doctor  for  a  time,  and 
might  have  been  cited  by  John  Ward  in  his  memorandum  of  clerical 
physicians.  ^  e.g.^  "  Goodie  Southeme,"  Ward's  Diary ^  p.  249. 


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JOHN   HALL'S  CASE-BOOKS  241 

a  memorandum  *'the  Catholic  was  cured."  There 
are  several  entries  about  Nonconformist  divines,  as 
Mr.  Walker  at  Ilmington,  Mr.  Fossett  and  Mr.  Wilson 
of  Stratford,  and  the  Rev.  John  Trap,  **for  his  piety 
and  learning  second  to  none,  and  by  much  study 
fallen  into  hypochondriac  melancholy." 

It  appears  that  Mr.  Hall  used  to  send  his  convales- 
cents to  Bath  or  the  Hotwells  near  Bristol.  Mrs. 
Delabarr,  for  example,  **  carte  to  be  so  much  better 
that  she  could  walk  and  ride,  and  then  would  to  the 
Bath  " ;  Mrs.  Wilson  "  cooled  her  body  "  too  much  by 
drinking  at  St.  Vincent's  Well  at  the  Hotwells,  and 
had  to  be  sent  ofiF  to  Bath  in  the  same  way.  Shake- 
speare must  have  been  quite  familiar  with  the  practice. 
The  two  Sonnets  on  **  Cupid  and  his  brand  "^  were 
partly  modelled  on  Spenser's  picture  of  the  boiling 
baths  **  which  seethe  with  sacred  fire,"*  and  partly  on 
.  an  epigram  in  the  Anthology  then  in  the  Palatine 
Library  at  Heidelberg,  and  now  among  the  manu- 
scripts in  the  Vatican.^  But  the  Sonnets  in  question 
also  show  a  real  knowledge  of  the  virtues  of  the 
**Bathonian  King's  Bath."  The  little  love-god  falls 
asleep  with  his  torch  at  his  side,  which  a  votaress 
of  Diana  extinguishes  in  the  bubbling  spring : 

'*  And  his  love-kindling  fire  did  quickly  steep 
In  a  cold  valley-fountain  of  that  ground  ; 
Which  borrowed  from  this  holy  fire  of  love 
A  dateless  lively  heat,  still  to  endure, 
And  grew  a  seething  bath,  which  yet  men  prove 
Against  strange  maladies  a  sovereign  cure." 

The  best  account  of  the  place  as  it  existed  about  the 
time  when  these  Sonnets  were  written  is  to  be  found  in 

*  Sonnets  cliii. ,  cliv, 

*  Faerie  Queene,  ii.  canto  x.  St.  26 :   "  Behold  the  boyling:  bathes  at 
Cairbadon,  which  seeth  with  secret  fire  eternally." 

*  Anth,  PaL<t  ix.  ep.  627  (Mapcdrov  XxoKaffrUov) 

T$d'  inro  rAf  rXardrow  draX^  rerpvfUrot  Hxvif 
evdey  "B/N^f ,  Ni//A^tf  Xa^ird^  wapd^fuvot,  etc. 
R 


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242       SHAKIESPEARE'S   DESCENDANTS 

Dr.  Venner's  Baths  of  Bathe y  whereto  is  annexed  **a 
Censure  of  the  medicinable  faculties  of  the  water 
of  St.  Vincent's  Rocks  near  the  City  of  Bristol.'' 
Bath,  he  says,  **is  a  little  well-compacted  citie  .  .  . 
for  goodnesse  of  ayre,  neernesse  of  a  sweet  and  delect- 
able River,  &c.  It  is  pleasant  and  happie  enough ; 
but  for  the  hot  waters  that  boyle  up  even  in  the 
middest  thereof,  it  is  more  delectable  and  happier,  than 
any  other  of  the  Kingdome."  ^  There  were  four  public 
baths,  besides  the  little  bath  for  lepers,  differing  in 
their  temperature  or  effects;  **the  Kings  Bath  is  the 
hottest,  and  it  is  for  beauty,  largenesse,  and  efficacy 
of  heat,  a  Kingly  Bath  indeed,  being  so  hot  as  can  be 
well  suffered."  2  Venner  is  very  severe  on  the  mounte- 
banks **  quacking  for  patients,"  and  when  the  season 
was  over  ** quacking  away  to  some  other  place"  for 
work,  *'as  Crowes  seek  for  Carrion."*  In  the  course 
of  his  attack  upon  purse-milkers,  he  incidentally  , 
explains  a  difficult  Shakespearean  phrase.  In  the  list 
of  omens  which  heralded  the  birth  of  Richard  III., 
when  the  owl  shrieked  and  the  night-crow  cried,  "the 
raven  rook'd  her  on  the  chimney's  top " ;  *  and  Dr. 
Venner  says  of  his  bath-side  mountebank  :  **  You  may 
also  discerne  him  by  his  rooking  up  and  downe,  now 
here,  now  there,  crooching  unto  one,  insinuating  with 
another,  bragging  and  vainely  boasting  of  his  owne 
worth  and  skill ;  as  though  he  had  monopolized  to 
himselfe  Artis  arcana,  or  that  jtEsculapius  were  only 
included  in  his  dishonest  pate."* 

Dr.  Hall's  case-books  contained  various  notes  as  to 
the  health  of  his  wife  and  daughter,  which  Mrs.  Hall 
probably  forgot  when  she  sold  the  manuscripts.  With- 
out entering  into  unnecessary  details,  we  may  observe 

*  Venner,  Baths  of  Bathcy  supplementary  to    Via  Recta  ad  Vitam 
Longanty  1638,  p.  31a 

*  A/.,  p.  311.  '  /fl?.,  enlarg-ed  edition,  1650,  p.  352. 

*  3  Henry  K/.,  v.  6,  47.  '  Venner,  w.^.,  1650,  pp.  361-2. 


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•     THE   HALLS'  VISIT  TO   LONDON       243 

that  in  1630  she  is  said  to  have  had  terrible  pains  in 
her  joints,  "so  that  she  could  not  lie  in  her  bed, 
insomuch  as  when  any  helped  her,  she  cried  out 
miserably."  Elizabeth  Hall  was  in  delicate  health  as 
a  girl.  **  Elisabeth  Hall,  my  only  daughter,"  writes 
the  Doctor,  **  vexed  with  tortura  orisj  or  convulsion  of 
the  mouth.  .  .  .  The  former  form  of  her  mouth  and 
face  was  restored  5  January,  1624."  He  soon  after- 
wards took  her  with  him  on  a  journey  to  London, 
where  he  had  a  house,  which  he  wanted  to  inspect. 
**  In  the  beginning  of  April,  she  went  to  London,  and 
returning  homewards  the  22nd  of  the  same  month  she 
took  cold,  and  fell  into  the  same  distemper  on  the 
contrary  side  of  the  face,  before  it  was  on  the  left  side, 
now  on  the  right;  and  although  she  was  grievously 
afflicted  with  it,  yet  by  the  blessing  of  God  she  was 
cured  in  sixten  days." 

The  Halls  appear  to  have  chosen  a  very  unhealthy 
time  for  their  excursion.  All  through  the  summer 
of  1624  there  was  a  prevalence  of  ague  and  fevers  of  an 
especially  virulent  type.  There  seemed  to  be  every 
chance  of  an  outbreak  of  a  more  dangerous  kind  : — 

**  As  a  planetary  plague,  when  Jove 
Will  o'er  some  high-viced  city  hang  his  poison 
In  the  sick  air."^ 

Dr.  Chamberlain  of  Westminster  wrote  from  his 
house  in  the  Abbey  Churchyard  that  there  was  no 
great  epidemic  as  far  as  the  summer  had  gone  :  '*  God 
keep  it  from  among  us,  for  we  are  in  danger.  But 
this  spotted  fever  is  cousin-german  to  it,  at  least,  and 
makes  as  quick  riddance  almost."^  It  will  be  remem- 
bered that  King  James  died  of  the  prevalent  **  tertian  " 
a  few  months  afterwards,  though  Dr.  George  Eglisham 

^  Timon  ofAthenSy  iv.  3,  108-10. 

'  Letter  of  August  21st,  1624,  quoted  by  C.  Creighton,  History  of 
Epidemicsy  1891,  i.  504.     See  Dom.  State  Papers,  vol.  clxxi.,  no.  66. 


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244      SHAKESPEARE'S  DESCENDANTS 

and  others  accused  the  Duke  of  Buckingham  and  his 
mother  of  administering  arsenic  and  a  poisonous 
ointment.^  The  King  himself  expected  to  die  of  his 
natural  complaint,  if  Ward's  entry  is  correct.  He  says 
that  he  heard  from  Mr.  Brace  that  the  King  was  lying 
on  a  couch  shortly  before  his  death,  and  his  servants 
thought  that  he  was  asleep.  **  But  hee  starts  up  and 
tels  them  that  hee  was  not,  but  was  thinking  that  hee 
was  an  old  man  and  must  shortly  die,  and  must  leave 
behind  him  three  fools,  the  King  of  Spaine,  the  King 
of  France,  and  his  owne  sonne."^ 

Elizabeth  Hall's  health  broke  down  soon  after  her 
return  from  London.  **  In  the  same  year  May  the 
24th  (1624),  she  was  afflicted  with  an  erratic  fever ; 
sometimes  she  was  hot,  by  and  by  sweating,  again 
cold,  all  in  the  space  of  half-an-hour,  and  thus  she  was 
vexed  oft  in  a  day."  The  old-fashioned  doctors  would 
have  bled  her  nearly  to  death,  before  administering 
snake-root  and  jelly  of  vipers'  skins,  and  tips  of 
crabs'  claws  taken  when  the  sun  was  in  the  sign  of 
Cancer.  Mr.  Hall  was  of  the  French  school,  following 
Dr.  Pons  of  Lyons,  who  had  written  against  indis- 
criminate bleeding,^  and  the  learned  Sir  Theodore  de 
Mayerne,  who  left  the  French  Court  to  become  phy- 
sician to  King  James.  Elizabeth  was  saved  by  her 
father's  skill  and  patience ;  and  we  find  him  making 
a  note  long  afterwards,  ''thus  was  she  delivered  from 
death  and  deadly  diseases,  and  was  well  for  many 
years." 

On  the  22nd  of  April,  1626,  she  was  married  to  Mr. 
Thomas  Nash,  eldest  son  of  Mr.  Anthony  Nash  of 

^  See  Egltsham,  Pradromus  vindictte  in  Ductm  BuckinghamUe,  pro 
virulenta  cade  Magtue  Britannia  Regis  Jacobi^  nee  non  Marckianis 
Hamiltonii  ac  aliorum  virorum  pHnciputn,  1626. 

^  Ward's  Diary ^  p.  1 19. 

•  Jacobus  Pons,  De  nimis  licentiosa  ac  liberaliore  intempestaHv€ique 
sanguinis  missione,  gua  hodie  pUrique  abutuntur^  brevis  tractoHo, 
Lvgduni,  1596. 


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MARRIAGE  OF  ELIZABETH   HALL     245 

Welcombe,  to  whom  Shakespeare  had  left  money  for 
a  mourning-ring.  In  the  entry  upon  the  register  she 
was  called  '^  Mistress  Elisabeth  Hall,'' the  title  being 
at  that  time  given  to  young  girls,  as  may  be  seen  by 
Mr.  Hall's  own  note  of  his  attendance  upon  **Mrs. 
Mary  Comb,  of  Stratford,  aged  about  thirteen."  Mr. 
Thomas  Nash  was  about  thirty-one  years  of  age.  He 
had  studied  law  at  Lincoln's  Inn,  just  enough  to  in- 
volve his  widow  in  a  Chancery  suit.  He  was  entitled 
after  his  father's  death  to  a  dwelling-house  in  Chapel 
Street,  close  to  New  Place,  to  certain  meadows  by  the 
Stone  Bridge  and  the  riverside,  and  to  the  tithes 
within  the  hamlet  of  Shottery.  It  seems  to  have  been 
a  great  object  to  him  to  acquire  the  Shakespeare 
estates  and  to  add  them  to  what  he  held  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood after  his  wife's  decease.* 

In  1632,  Mr.  Hall  was  in  great  danger.  *'  I  fell  into 
a  most  cruel  torture  of  my  teeth,  and  then  into  a 
deadly  burning  fever,  which  then  raged  very  much, 
killing  almost  all  that  it  did  infect,  for  which  I  used 
the  following  method,  which  by  the  help  of  God 
succeeded.  ...  I  was  not  only  much  maciated  but 
weakened,  so  that  I  could  not  move  myself  &c.  Then 
my  wife  sent  for  two  physicians  [my  friends]  .  .  .  and 
I  became  perfectly  well,  praised  be  God  I "  Three 
years  afterwards  the  malignant  fever  appeared  in  many 
parts  of  the  country.  Dr.  Creighton  regards  it  as 
having  been  the  precursor  of  the  Plague  which  raged 
so  violently  in  the  following  year.^  Even  in  1635,  we 
are  told,  the  Plague  carried  oflf  3,000  persons  at  Hull,* 
and  there  were  outbreaks  in  Kent  and  the  eastern 
counties,  where  the  infection  lingered  for  a  year  or 
more.  Mr.  Hall  seems  to  have  been  struck  down  very 
suddenly.     He  only  had  time  to  make  a  verbal  will 

'  See  Halliwell-Phiilipps,  u,s.f  ii.  91-3. 

*  C.  Creighton,  op,  cit,  i.  506-7. 

'  The  actual  number  was  2,730  (tVi.,  i.  528). 


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246      SHAKESPEARE'S   DESCENDANTS 

before  his  death,  and  the  malignancy  of  the  fever  is 
shown  by  his  being  buried  the  next  day.  For  a 
** nuncupative"  will,  as  it  was  called,  hardly  any 
ceremonies  were  at  that  time  required.  Malone  gives 
a  copy  of  the  transcript,  dated  the  25th  of  November, 
1635.^  **  Imprimis,  I  give  unto  my  wife  my  house  in 
London.  Item,  I  give  unto  my  daughter  Nash  my 
house  in  Acton.  Item,  I  give  unto  my  daughter  Nash 
my  meadow.  Item,  I  give  my  goods  and  money  unto 
my  wife  and  my  daughter  Nash,  to  be  equally  divided 
betwixt  them.  Item,  concerning  my  study  of  books, 
I  leave  them,  said  he,  to  you,  my  son  Nash,  to  dispose 
of  them  as  you  see  good.  As  ifor  my  manuscripts,  I 
would  have  given  them  to  Mr.  Boles,  if  he  had  been 
here ;  but  forasmuch  he  is  not  here  present,  you  may, 
son  Nash,  burn  them  or  do  with  them  what  you 
please."  The  will  was  witnessed  by  Thomas  Nash, 
and  Mr.  Simon  Trapp,  the  curate ;  and  no  executor 
having  been  appointed,  administration  was  granted  to 
his  widow  in  the  November  following. 

Although  Mr.  Hall  had  sold  the  lease  of  the  Strat- 
ford tithes  in  1625,  his  relations  were  allowed  to  bury 
him  in  the  chancel,  as  though  he  still  enjoyed  a 
rectorial  privilege.  The  tombstone  lies  between  those 
of  his  wife  and  son-in-law.  The  arms  of  Hall  and 
Shakespeare  are  rudely  displayed  on  a  shield,  with 
the  inscription  :  **Here  lyeth  the  body  of  John  Hall, 
Gent.  :  he  marr :  Susanna,  ye  daughter  and  coheire 
of  Will.  Shakespeare,  Gent.  :  hee  deceased  Nover  25, 
Ao.  1635  aged  60."  The  Latin  epitaph  is  not  without 
interest.  Its  effect  in  English  is  as  follows :  **  Here 
lies  Hall,  most  renowned  for  his  medical  skill,  expect- 
ing the  glad  joys  of  the  Heavenly  Kingdom :  he  was 
worthy  for  his  deserts  to  rival  Nestor  in  length  of 
years,  but  those  on  earth  are  carried  off  by  one  day 
alike  for  all.     Lest  aught  should  be  wanting  to  his 

^  Also  in  Halliwell-PhillippSi  u,s.t  ii.  61. 


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DEATH   OF  JOHN  HALL  247 

tomby  his  faithful  wife  is  at  hand,  and  he  has  the 
companion  of  his  life  as  a  comrade  in  death."  ^  The 
verses,  in  Malone's  opinion,  could  not  have  been 
inscribed  before  Mrs,  Hall's  own  death  in  1649,  unless 
the  last  couplet  was  added  at  that  time ;  but  there 
seems  to  be  no  reason  why  the  epitaph  should  not 
have  been  written  with  a  view  to  the  future  event. 

We  know  hardly  anything  about  Shakespeare's 
books,  except  that  they  must  have  passed  to  Mr.  Nash, 
and  afterwards  to  his  widow,  as  his  residuary  legatee. 
The  poet  had  a  Florio's  Montaigne,  if  the  autograph 
in  the  British  Museum  is  genuine,  and  the  Bodleian 
library  has  an  Aldine  Ovid  with  his  signature,  and 
a  note  :  **  This  little  booke  of  Ovid  was  given  to  me  by 
W.  Hall,  who  sayd  it  was  once  Will.  Shakespeare's." 
There  is  no  list  of  the  contents  of  the  * '  study  of  books  " ; 
but  it  appears  by  several  authorities  that  the  phrase 
means  a  collection  or  library.  The  learned  Elias 
Ashmole,  for  example,  notes  how  he  bought  Mr.  John 
Booker's  study  of  books  for  ;£"  140.*  Mr.  Ward  uses 
the  phrase  in  the  same  way  when  quoting  a  story  from 
one  of  the  Russells:  **An  auncient  minister  in  their 
country,  a  very  good  schoUar  .  .  .  affirmd,  that  a 
divine  could  not  handsomely  furnish  a  studie  for  his 
use  under  700  li.  ;  and  he  reckond  itt  upp  to  him,  so 
much  for  such  a  sort  of  books,  and  so  much  for 
another ;  as  I  remember,  hee  told  mee  30  li.  for 
biblek."' 

At  the  time  of  Mr.  Hall's  death,  the  Nashes  were 


^  "  Hallius  hie  situs  est  medica  celeberrimus  arte, 
Expectans  regni  g^audia  lata  Dei. 
Dignus  erat  loeritis  qui  Nestora  vinceret  annis 

In  terris  omnes  sed  rapit  aequa  dies  ; 
Ne  tumulo  quid  desit,  adest  fidissima  conjux, 
Et  vitae  comitem,  nunc  quoque  mortis  habet" 

*  Memoirs  of  the  Life  of .  ,  .  Elias  Ashmole,  Esq.  ;  Drawn  up  by 
himself  by  way  of  Diary,  London,  1717,  p.  41  (aist  May,  1667). 

•  Ward's  Diary,  p.  285. 


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248      SHAKESPEARE'S  DESCENDANTS 

living  in  their  own  house,  next  door  to  New  Place ; 
but,  in  accordance  with  Mrs,  Hall's  wish,  they  gave 
up  their  establishment  and  kept  house  with  her  until 
Mr.  Nash's  death.  While  they  were  all  living  together, 
New  Place  was  sometimes  called  **  Mr.  Nash's  house," 
even  by  himself ;  but  it  appears  clearly  by  the  parish- 
books  that  Mrs.  Hall  was  both  owner  and  rateable 
occupier.^ 

In  1636  they  became  intimate  with  some  of  Mrs. 
Shakespeare's  relations.  William  Hathaway,  who, 
according  to  Malone,  was  the  poet's  grandnephew,  was 
farming  the  estate  at  Weston  -  upon  -  Avon.  His 
brother  Thomas  came  in  that  year  to  Stratford,  when 
he  was  admitted  into  the  Joiner's  Company,  and  made 
a  freeman  of  the  Borough,  paying  fees  as  a  ** foreigner," 
though  the  amount  was  reduced  as  a  matter  of  grace. 
The  brothers  became  trustees  of  the  New  Place  estate 
upon  a  settlement  being  made  in  1647,  and  they  seem 
to  have  been  accepted  without  any  hesitation  as  mem- 
bers of  the  family.  Thomas  Hathaway  had  a  son 
named  William,  who  is  believed  to  have  died  in  youth, 
and  there  were  five  daughters :  Rose,  the  eldest,  was 
baptised  at  Stratford  in  1640;  Joanna  married  a  Mr. 
Edward  Kent;  and  we  hear  of  Judith,  of  Elizabeth, 
born  in  1647,  and  Susanna,  born  in  the  following 
year.^ 

Mrs.  Hall  was  living  in  New  Place  in  July,  1643, 
when  Queen  Henrietta  Maria  made  her  triumphant 
entry  into  the  town,  and  held  her  gay  Court  in  the 
poet's  old  home.^  A  few  months  afterwards  Stratford 
was  occupied  by  the  Parliamentary  forces,  and  it  was 
on  this  occasion  that  Mr.  James  Cooke,  a  surgeon  and 
general    practitioner    of    high    repute    at    Warwick, 

^  See  Stopes,  op,  ciLy  p.  97. 

'  Malone,  op,  ciL^  ii.  1 15-16,  where  the  date  of  Rose's  baptism  is 
given  as  6th  November,  1642. 

*  See  Halliwell'Phillipps,  «.j.,  ii.  io8-xa 


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JAMES  COOKE  AND  HALL'S  NOTES    249 

obtained  the  medical  notes  prepared  by  Mr,  Hall,  and 
published  a  few  years  afterwards.^  Mr.  Cooke  was 
the  author  of  Melltfictum  ChirurguBj  which  appeared 
in  1655.  It  was  republished  with  a  supplement  as  a 
duodecimo  in  1662,  and  was  enlarged  into  an  octavo 
and  a  quarto  in  later  issues.  William  Oldys  had  two 
portraits  of  Cooke  in  his  collection,  both  by  Robert 
White,  the  one  taken  at  the  age  of  sixty-four  in  an 
oval  frame  **with  hair,  and  a  short  neck-cloth,"  and 
the  other  engraved  about  seven  years  afterwards.  The 
cases  selected  by  Mr.  Hall  were  published  some  years 
after  Cooke  bought  the  manuscript.  The  full  title  is 
given  by  Mr.  Fennell  as  follows:  **  Select  observations 
on  English  Bodies,  or  Cures  both  Empericall  and 
Historicall  performed  upon  very  eminent  persons  in 
desperate  Diseases.  First  written  in  Latine  by  Mr. 
John  Hall,  physician,  living  at  Stratford-upon-Avon^ 
in  Warwickshire,  where  he  was  very  famous,  as  also 
in  the  counties  adjacent,  as  appears  by  these  Observa- 
tions drawn  out  of  severall  hundreds  of  his,  as  choy- 
sest;  Now  put  into  English  for  common  benefit  by 
James  Cooke  Practitioner  in  Physick  and  Chirurgery  : 
London,  printed  for  John  Sherley,  at  the  Golden 
Pelican,  in   Little-Britain,  1657." 

An  address  to  the  friendly  reader  contains  an  ac- 
count of  the  editor's  interview  with  Mrs.  Hall  about 
the  year  1644.^  '^  Being  in  my  art  an  attendant  to 
parts  of  some  regiments  to  keep  the  pass  at  the  bridge 
of  Stratford-upon-Avon,  there  being  then  with  me  a 
mate  allied  to  the  gentleman  that  writ  the  following 
observations  in  Latin,  he  invited  me  to  the  house  of 
Mrs.  Hall,  wife  to  the  deceased,  to  see  the  books  left 
by  Mr.  Hall.  After  a  view  of  them,  she  told  me  she 
had  some  books  left  by  one  that  professed  physic,  with 

^  Halliwell-Phillipps,  id, ,  i.  276,  puts  the  date  of  Cooke's  examination 
of  the  papers  earlier,  '<  about  the  year  1642/' 
'  See  preceding  note. 


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250      SHAKESPEARE'S   DESCENDANTS 

her  husband,  for  some  money,  I  told  her,  if  I  liked 
them,  I  would  give  her  the  money  again  ;  she  brought 
them  forth,  amongst  which  there  was  this  with  another 
of  the  Author's,  both  intended  for  the  press.  I  being 
acquainted  with  Mr.  Hall's  hand,  told  her  that  one  or 
two  of  them  were  her  husband's,  and  showed  them 
her ;  she  denied,  I  affirmed,  till  I  perceived  she  begun 
to  be  offended.  At  last  I  returned  her  the  money. 
After  some  time  of  trial  of  what  had  been  observed, 
I  resolved  to  put  it  to  suffer  according  to  perceived  in- 
tentions, to  which  end  I  sent  it  to  London,  which  after 
[being]  viewed  by  an  able  Doctor,  he  returned  answer 
that  it  might  be  useful,  but  the  Latin  was  so  abbre- 
viated or  false,  that  it  would  require  the  like  pains  as 
to  write  a  new  one.  After  which,  having  some  spare 
hours  (it  being  returned  to  me),  I  put  it  into  this 
garb,  being  somewhat  acquainted  with  the  author's 
conciseness,  especially  in  the  Receipts,  having  had 
some  acquaintance  with  his  apothecary."  In  a  post- 
script he  adds:  *'I  had  almost  forgot  to  tell  ye 
that  these  Observations  were  chosen  by  him  from 
all  the  rest  of  his  own,  which  I  conjectured  could 
be  no  less  than  a  thousand,  as  fittest  for  public 
view." 

Mrs.  Hall  died  at  Stratford  on  the  nth  of  July,  1649, 
and  was  buried  in  the  chancel  of  the  Parish  Church 
five  days  afterwards.  The  date  of  her  death  is  given 
by  Dugdale  as  July  the  2nd,  but  this  shown  by  the 
register  to  be  only  a  clerical  error.  The  inscription 
on  her  tombstone  was  to  the  following  effect :  *<  Heere 
lyeth  ye  body  of  Svsanna,  wife  to  John  Hall  Gent :  ye 
davghter  of  William  Shakespeare  Gent.  She  deceased 
ye  nth  of  Jvly,  a.d.  1649,  aged  66: 

Witty  above  her  sexe,  but  that's  not  all, 
Wise  to  salvation  was  good  Mistris  Hall, 
Something  of  Shakespere  was  in  that,  but  this 
Wholy  of  Him  with  whom  she's  now  in  blisse. 


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DEATH  AND  EPITAPH   OF  MRS.  HALL    251 

Then,  passenger,  has't  neVe  a  teare 

To  weepe  with  her  that  wept  with  all  ? 
That  wept  yet  set  herselfe  to  chere 
Them  up  with  comforts  cordiall. 
Her  Love  shall  live,  her  mercy  spread. 
When  thou  ha'st  ne're  a  teare  to  shed." 

The  whole  inscription  was  erased  when  her  grave 
was  disturbed  at  the  beginning  of  the  last  century. 
There  was  a  person  named  Watts  living  at  Rhyon- 
ClifiFord  on  a  property  which  is  said  once  to  have 
belonged  to  Mr.  Hall.  He  appears  to  have  acquired 
some  interest  in  the  Stratford  tithes,  and  his  relations, 
no  doubt,  put  in  the  usual  claim  for  a  grave  in  the 
chancel.  He  was  accordingly  buried  in  Mrs.  Hall's 
grave,  her  epitaph  being  erased.  Malone  has  pre- 
served the  form  of  the  substituted  inscription,  which 
ran  as  follows:  **Here  lyeth  the  body  of  Richard 
Watts  of  Ryhon-ClifFord,  in  the  parish  of  old  Strat- 
ford, Gent,  who  departed  this  life  the  23d  of  May, 
Anno  Dom.  1707,  and  in  the  46th  year  of  his  age."^ 
The  story  of  the  restoration  of  Mrs.  Hall's  memorial 
is  told  by  Mr.  Neil  in  his  Home  of  Shakespeare.  The 
intruding  lines  were  erased  in  1844 ;  the  original  in- 
scription was  restored  **  by  lowering  the  surface  of  the 
stone  and  re-cutting  the  letters " ;  and  the  tombs  of 
John  Hall  and  Thomas  Nash  were  also  improved  **  by 
deepening  the  letters  and  re-cutting  the  armorial 
bearings."* 

^  Malone,  op,  cit.,  ii.  618,  note. 

'  Neil,  If ame  0/  Shakespeare,  1 871,  p.  49. 


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252       SHAKESPEARE'S  DESCENDANTS 


IV 

JUDITH  SHAKESPEARE — HER  MARRIAGE  TO  THOMAS  QUINEY — 
HER  PLACE  IN  HER  FATHER'S  WILL — THE  QUINSY  FAMILY — 
ALLUSIONS  TO  GROCERS  AND  DRUGGISTS  IN  SHAKESPEARE 

Before  following  the  later  fortunes  of  Mrs,  Hall's 
daughter  Elizabeth  we  must  return  to  the  story  of 
Judith  Shakespeare  and  her  relations  with  the  family 
of  Quiney,  Very  little  seems  to  be  known  about  her 
life,  though  it  was  hoped  at  one  time  that  something 
would  be  found  out  about  her  in  Mr.  Ward's  diaries. 
The  vicar  had  made  a  memorandum,  of  which  the 
exact  date  does  not  appear,  about  several  matters  that 
required  immediate  attention.  Among  other  things, 
he  owed  a  letter  to  his  brother  in  Gloucestershire  ;  he 
was  to  send  to  his  friend,  Tom  Smith,  for  a  certain 
acknowledgment,  and,  in  between  the  two,  he  meant 
**to  see  Mrs.  Queeny."  This  entry  has  been  taken 
to  refer  to  Shakespeare's  younger  daughter,  but  an 
examination  of  the  circumstances  will  show  that  this 
can  hardly  be  correct.^ 

Judith  Shakespeare  lived  at  home  till  her  marriage 
in  the  February  before  her  father's  death,  when  she 
was  just  past  thirty-one  years  of  age.  The  marriage- 
entry  in  the  register  is  as  follows :  **  1615.^  Feab- 
ruary  10.  Tho.  Queeny  tow  Judith  Shakespeare." 
Her  husband  was  considerably  younger  than  herself, 
having  been  baptised  on  the  26th  of  February, 
1589-90.  He  was  the  son  of  Mr.  Richard  Quiney, 
High  BailifiF  of  Stratford,  who  died  in  1602.^ 

The  correspondence  between  this  Richard  Quiney 
and  his  brother-in-law,  Abraham  Sturley,  about  Strat- 
ford business,  is  printed  in  an  appendix  to  the  Life 

1  Ward's  Diary,  p.  184.  «  x6i6,  N.S. 

'  Malone,  op.  ciL,  ii.  6i3-i4, 


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THE  QUINEY  FAMILY  253 

by  Malone ;  but  it  may  be  convenient  to  extract  one  or 
two  passages  directly  relating  to  Shakespeare,  with 
a  change  into  modern  spelling  to  render  them  more 
generally  intelligible.  The  letter  from  Sturley,  dated 
the  24th  of  January,  1597-8,  contains  a  reference  to  the 
tithes :  **  This  is  one  special  remembrance  from  your 
father's  motion :  it  seemeth  by  him  that  our  country- 
man, Mr.  Shakespeare,  is  willing  to  disburse  some 
money  upon  some  odd  yard-land  or  other  at  Shottery 
or  near  about  us ;  he  thinketh  it  a  very  fit  pattern  to 
move  him  to  deal  in  the  matter  of  our  tithes.  By  the 
instructions  you  can  give  him  thereof,  and  by  the 
friends  he  can  make  therefor,  we  think  it  a  fair  mark 
for  him  to  shoot  at,  and  not  unpossible  to  hit.  If 
obtained,  would  advance  him  indeed,  and  would  do 
us  much  good."  The  Borough  was  in  great  want 
of  funds,  and  he  writes  in  November  of  the  same  year 
that  he  has  received  the  message  importing  that  this 
countryman,  Mr.  William  Shakespeare,  would  procure 
the  money,  "which  I  will  like  of  as  I  shall  hear 
when,  and  where,  and  how,  and  I  pray  let  not 
go  that  occasion  if  it  may  sort  to  any  indifferent  con- 
ditions." ^ 

Mr.  Quiney's  letter  to  Shakespeare  was  dated  the 
25th  of  October,  1598.  The  important  passages  run 
in  modern  English  as  follows:  ** Loving  countryman, 
I  am  bold  of  you,  as  of  a  friend,  craving  your  help 
with  £30  upon  Mr.  Bushell's  and  my  security,  or 
Mr.  Mytten's  with  me.  Mr.  Rosswell  is  not  come 
to  London  as  yet,  and  I  have  especial  cause.  You 
shall  friend  me  much  in  helping  me  out  of  all  the 
debts  I  owe  in  London,  I  thank  God,  and  much  quiet 
my  mind,  which  would  not  be  indebted  .  .  .  My  time 
bids  me  hasten  to  an  end,  and  so  I  commit  this  [to] 
your  care  and  hope  of  your  help.  I  fear  I  shall  not 
be  back  this  night  from  the  Court.     Haste.    The  Lord 

'  Id,y  iL  566.    See  also  transcripts  in  Halliwell-PhUlipps,  m.^.,  ii.  57-60. 


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254      SHAKESPEARE'S  DESCENDANTS 

be  with  you  and  with  us  all,  Amen  !  from  the  Bell 
in  Carter  Lane.  .  .  .  Yours  in  all  kindness,  Rye. 
Quyney."* 

This  gentleman  had  eight  children :  the  three 
daughters  were  named  Elizabeth,  Anne,  and  Mary ; 
Adrian,  the  eldest  son,  named  after  his  uncle,  a  former 
High  Bailiff,  was  born  in  1586;  Richard,  who  became 
a  grocer  in  London,  was  born  in  the  following  year ; 
Thomas,  as  we  have  seen,  was  twenty-seven  when  he 
married  Shakespeare's  daughter ;  William  was  born 
in  1593,  according  to  Boswell's  note  on  Malone,  John 
in  1597,  and  George  in  April,  i6oo.  The  last  became 
the  Curate  of  Stratford,  and  died  in  1624  of  a  consump- 
tion.' We  have  already  mentioned  his  illness,  and 
we  need  only  add  Mr.  Hall's  concluding  note  to  the 
effect  that  his  patient  was  a  person  of  good  parts,  and 
for  so  young  a  man  was  very  learnt  in  every  subject. 

Mr.  Halliwell-Phillipps  considered  that  the  Quineys 
must  have  been  anxious  to  hasten  their  marriage : 
"they  were  married,"  he  says,  "without  a  licence,  an 
irregularity  for  which  a  few  weeks  afterwards  they 
were  fined  and  threatened  with  excommunication  by 
the  ecclesiastical  court  at  Worcester."*  There  is 
something  obscure  about  the  statement.  The  usual 
course  was  to  have  banns  instead  of  any  licence,  except 
during  prohibited  periods.  Even  the  Princess  Eliza- 
beth had  followed  the  customary  rule.  The  Vicar 
of  Stratford  heard  from  Mr.  Washburn  how  "King 
James  would  have  his  daughter  askt  three  times  in 
the  church,  which  accordingly  shee  was,  in  St. 
Margaret's,  Westminster."*  It  is  most  improbable 
that  the  incumbent  would  have  wilfully  incurred  the 
punishment  due  for  omitting  the  banns,  in  the  absence 
of  a  dispensation  ;  but  it  has  already  been  shown  that 

^  See  facsimile  and  transcript  in  Halliwell-Phillipps,  id,y  i.  166-7. 
'  Malone,  op,  cit.^  ii.  613.  *  Halliwell-Phillipps,  w.^.,  i.  255. 

*  Ward's  Diary ^  p.  172. 


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JUDITH   SHAKESPEARE'S   MARRIAGE     255 

there  were  great  differences  of  opinion  about  the 
necessity  of  a  licence  to  marry  within  the  periods  of 
prohibition.  In  the  year  of  Judith  Shakespeare's 
marriage,  Septuagesi ma  Sunday  fell  on  January  7th,  old 
style ;  the  7th  of  April  following  was  the  First  Sunday 
after  Easter,  when  the  marriage  season  commenced 
again.  It  is  clear  that  Thomas  and  Judith  ought  to 
have  bought  a  dispensation,  if  only  to  give  the  officials 
their  ancient  fee.  From  FalstafTs  mouth  we  learn  of 
another  rule  that  was  rapidly  becoming  obsolete. 
**  Marry,  there  is  another  indictment  upon  thee,  for 
suffering  flesh  to  be  eaten  in  thy  house,  contrary  to 
the  law,  for  the  which  I  think  thou  wilt  howl " ;  and 
**A11  victuallers  do  so,"  is  all  that  can  be  urged  in 
reply."  ^  It  was  held  to  be  no  answer  in  Judith's  case. 
No  doubt  the  biographer  is  right  in  saying  that  they 
were  actually  sued  ;  the  important  point  for  us  to  con- 
sider is  the  effect  which  these  proceedings  had  upon 
Shakespeare.  There  is  no  occasion  to  suppose  that  the 
younger  daughter  would  have  stood  in  her  sister's 
place  if  the  marriage  had  been  canonically  correct ; 
but  it  certainly  looks  as  if  Shakespeare  apprehended 
that  the  marriage  might  be  declared  void.  Every 
care  apparently  was  taken  to  meet  the  danger.  The 
term  of  three  years  was  fixed  from  the  date  of  the  will, 
during  which  certain  events  were  to  happen,  according 
as  Judith  had  or  had  not  a  child  or  children  ;  Thomas 
Quiney  is  not  mentioned  by  name,  and,  in  fact,  is  only 
vaguely  indicated  as  the  person  who  might  be  Judith's 
husband  after  the  expiration  of  the  three-years  period. 
To  make  the  point  clear,  it  may  be  convenient  to  take 
the  exact  words  of  that  part  of  the  will,  the  words 
struck  out  and  inserted  in  the  clauses  being  indicated 
by  italics  and  brackets.  The  title  and  heading  are 
written  out  at  length ;  but  the  pious  exordium,  dis- 
posing of  soul  and  body,  is  omitted. 

^  2  Henry  IV,,  ii.  4,  371. 


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256      SHAKESPEARE'S  DESCENDANTS 

"  Vicesimo  Quinto  Die  (/anttanV  erased)  Martii  (inserted) 
anno  regni  domini  nostri  Jacobi,  nunc  regis  Anglie»  &c. 
decimo  quarto,  et  Scotiae  xlix**  annoque  Domini  1616.  T. 
{Testamentuni)  Wmi  Shackspeare.  In  the  name  of  God, 
amen !  I  William  Shackspeare  of  Stratford-upon-Avon  in 
the  countie  of  Warr,  gent.,  in  perfect  health  and  memorie, 
God  be  praysed,  doe  make  and  ordayne  this  my  last  will  and 
testament  in  manner  and  forme  folioweing.  .  .  .  Item  I  gyve 
and  bequeath  unto  my  (sonne  in  L  erased)  daughter  Judyth 
one  hundred  and  fyftie  pounds  of  lawfull  English  money,  to 
be  paied  unto  her  in  manner  and  forme  folioweing,  that  ys 
to  saye,  one  hundred  pounds  in  discharge  of  her  marriage 
pardon  (inserted)  within  one  yeare  after  my  deceas,  with 
consideracion  after  the  rate  of  twoe  shillinges  in  the  pound 
for  soe  long  tyme  as  the  same  shal  be  unpaied  unto  her  after 
my  deceas,  and  the  fyftie  pounds  residewe  thereof  upon  her 
surrendring  of  (inserted)  or  gyving  of  such  sufficient  securitie 
as  the  overseers  of  this  my  will  shall  like  of  to  surrender  or 
graunte  &c.  (the  Rowington  copyhold).  Item  I  gyve  and 
bequeath  unto  my  saied  Daughter  Judith  one  hundred  and 
fyftie  pounds  more,  if  shee  or  anie  issue  of  her  bodie  be 
lyvinge  att  thend  of  three  yeares  next  ensueing  the  daie  of 
the  date  of  this  my  will,  during  which  tyme  my  executours 
to  paie  her  consideracion  from  my  deceas  according  to  the 
rate  aforesaied ;  and  if  she  dye  within  the  saied  terme  with- 
out issue  of  her  bodye,  then  my  will  ys,  and  I  doe  gyve  and 
bequeath  one  hundred  poundes  thereof  to  my  neece  Eliza- 
beth Hall,  and  the  fiftie  poundes  to  be  sett  fourth  by  my 
executours  during  the  lief  of  my  sister  Johane  Harte,  and 
the  use  and  proffitt  thereof  cominge  shal  be  payed  to  my 
saied  sister  Jone,  and  after  her  deceas  the  saied  1.  li.  shall 
remaine  amongst  the  children  of  my  saied  sister  equaiiie  to 
be  devided  amongst  them ;  but  if  my  saied  daughter  Judith 
be  lyving  att  thend  of  the  saied  three  yeares,  or  anie  yssue 
of  her  bodye,  then  my  will  ys  and  soe  I  devise  and  bequeath 
the  saied  hundred  and  fyftie  poundes  to  be  sett  out  by  my 
executours  and  overseers  (inserted)  for  the  best  benefitt  of  her 
and  her  issue,  and  the  stock  (inserted)  not  to  be  (inserted) 
paied  unto  her  soe  long  as  she  shal  be  marryed  and  covert 
baron  {by  my  executours  and  overseers  erased) ;  but  my  will 
ys  that  she  shall  have  the  consideracion  yearelie  paied  unto 


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HIS  LEGACIES  TO  JUDITH  257 

her  during  her  lief,  and,  after  her  deceas,  the  saied  stock  and 
consideracion  to  be  paied  to  her  children,  if  she  have  anie, 
and  if  not,  to  her  executours  or  assignes,  she  lyving  the 
saied  terme  after  my  deceas,  Provided  that  if  such  husbond 
as  she  shall  att  thend  of  the  saied  three  yeares  be  marryed 
unto,  or  att  ante  after,"^  doe  sufhcientle  assure  unto  her  and 
thissue  of  her  bodie  lands  awnswereable  to  the  porcion  by 
this  my  will  gyven  unto  her,  and  to  be  adjudged  soe  by  my 
executours  and  overseers,  then  my  will  ys  that  the  saied 
cl.  //.  shal  be  paied  to  such  husbond  as  shall  make  such 
assurance,  to  his  owne  use.  Item,  I  gyve  and  bequeath 
unto  my  saied  sister  Jone  xx  liy  and  all  my  wearing  apparell, 
to  be  paied  and  delivered  within  one  yeare  after  my  deceas  ; 
and  I  doe  will  and  devise  unto  her  the  house  (inserted)  with 
thappurtenaunces  in  Stratford,  wherein  she  dwelleth,  for  her 
naturall  lief,  under  the  yearelie  rent  of  xii  d.  Item,  I  gyve 
and  bequeath  unto  her  three  sonns,  William  Harte,  (blank) 
Hart,  and  Michaell  Harte,  fyve  poundes  a  peece,  to  be  payed 
within  one  yeare  after  my  deceas  {to  be  sett  out  for  her  within 
one  yeare  after  my  deceas  by  my  executours^  with  thadvise  and 
direccions  of  my  overseers,  for  her  best  proffitt  untill  her 
marriage^  and  then  the  same  with  the  increase  thereof  to  be 
paied  unto  her,  all  but  the  last  word  erased).  Item,  I  gyve 
and  bequeath  unto  (fier  erased)  the  saied  Elizabeth  Hall 
(inserted)  All  my  plate  except  my  brod  silver  and  gilt  bole 
(inserted),  that  I  now  have  att  the  date  of  this  my  will. 
Itemy  I  gyve  and  bequeath  unto  the  poore  of  Stratford  afore- 
saied  tenn  poundes  &c.  Item^  I  gyve  and  bequeath  to  my 
saied  daughter  Judith  my  broad  silver  gilt  bole.  ...  In 
witnes  whereof  I  have  hereunto  put  my  (seale  erased)  hand 
(inserted)  the  daie  and  yeare  first  above  written. — By  me, 
William  Shakespeare.*' 

Some  of  the  erasures  in  the  portions  of  the  document 
here  extracted  might  lead  the  reader  to  infer  that  the 
original  draft  contained  provisions  far  more  beneficial 
to  Judith  and  her  husband  than  those  which  the  will 
contained  as  finally  executed. 

The  position  and  circumstances   of    Mr.   Thomas 

^  u€.  at  any  (time)  after. 
S 

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258       SHAKESPEARE'S  DESCENDANTS 

Quiney,  at  the  time  of  his  marriage  and  afterwards, 
appear  by  the  extracts  from  the  Corporation  Books 
collected  and  published  by  Mr.  HaHiwell-Phillipps.^ 
He  was  living,  when  he  married,  in  a  house  on  the 
west  side  of  the  High  Street,  but  after  a  few  months 
he  moved  into  a  larger  house,  called  the  Cage,  on  the 
opposite  side,  **at  the  corner  of  Fore  Bridge  Street," 
where  he  had  set  up  a  vintner's  shop.  His  mother, 
Mrs.  Elizabeth  Quiney,  had  kept  a  tavern  ever  since 
Richard  Quiney's  death ;  and  we  may  suppose  that 
the  newly  married  couple  obtained  a  transfer  or  a 
renewal  of  her  licence.  Thomas  Quiney  is  shown 
to  have  had  a  good  education  by  his  fine  penmanship, 
and  by  his  use  of  a  French  motto  used  in  one  of  his 
accounts  for  1623.'  We  are  told  that  he  was  admitted 
to  the  freedom  of  the  Borough  in  161 7,  and  acted  as 
Chamberlain  for  two  years  after  his  first  election  in 
1621.  He  did  not  retire  from  the  Town  Council  till 
1630,  when  his  afiEairs  were  in  an  unfortunate  position, 
since  <Mn  that  year's  annals"  it  is  recorded  that  he 
was  fined  a  shilling  for  swearing,  the  amount  showing 
that  he  was  treated  as  a  person  of  low  station ;  and 
that  he  was  also  fined  a  like  amount  for  allowing 
townsmen  to  tipple  in  his  house.  The  proceedings  in 
the  last  case  were  under  the  Tippling  Acts  of  the  first 
and  fourth  years  of  James  I.,  by  which  inquiry  was  to 
be  made  before  the  Justices  of  Assize  and  in  every 
court- leet  as  to  persons  being  drunk  and  continu- 
ing drinking  or  tippling,  or  sufifering  persons  to 
continue  drinking  or  tippling.  The  keepers  of  ale- 
houses and  victuallers  were  in  like  manner  bound 
by  their  recognisances  not  to  allow  idle  persons  to 
remain  in  their  houses  long  to  sit  singing,  trifling,  or 
drinking,  to  the  maintenance  of  idleness. 
Judith  Quiney  was  unfortunate  in  her  marriage.    All 

^  See  Halliwell-Phillips,  op.  cit^  i.  305-7. 
^  See  facsimiles,  id, ,  i.  256. 


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THOMAS  QUINEY'S   MISFORTUNES    259 

her  children  died  young,  and  her  husband  left  her 
about  1652  to  get  support  from  his  brother  in  London. 
Shakespeare  Quiney,  their  first  child,  was  baptised  on 
the  23rd  of  November,  1616,  and  died  in  the  following 
May.  In  the  entries  as  to  his  baptism  and  burial  his 
father  is  styled  '^ gentleman"  ;  but  the  epithet  is  dis- 
continued afterwards,  in  consequence,  perhaps,  of  his 
trading  as  a  vintner.  **  Richard,  son  of  Thomas 
Quiney,"  was  baptised  the  9th  of  February,  1617-18, 
and  Thomas,  the  third  and  last  child,  on  the  23rd  of 
January,  1619-20.  Thomas  died  first,  at  the  end  of 
January,  1638-9,  and  Richard  within  five  weeks  after- 
wards.^ 

It  appears  from  the  local  records  that  Mr.  Quiney 
was  at  one  time  in  danger  of  a  prosecution  for  selling 
unwholesome  and  adulterated  wine.  The  practice,  no 
doubt,  was  common ;  but  a  conviction  made  the  ofifender 
liable  to  very  formidable  penalties.  Mr.  Quiney's 
excuse  was  that  he  had  dealt  for  years  with  Mr.  Francis 
Creswick,  of  Bristol,  who  had  always  supplied  him 
with  good  wine,  and  in  quantities  of  several  hogsheads 
at  a  time,  and  that  on  this  particular  occasion  someone 
must  have  tampered  with  the  stock  during  its  transit 
from  Bristol  to  Stratford.  One  may  suspect,  however, 
that  he  had  become  too  expert  in  the  mystery  of 
making  artificial  wines  and  restoring  pricked  and 
musty  vintages.  There  were  plenty  of  tavern-keepers 
who  could  make  claret  or  alicant  out  of  cider  and  mul- 
berries, and  malmsey  or  a  pint  of  ^* brown  bastard"^ 
with  thin  white  wine  and  a  few  raisins  of  the  sun. 
Mr.  Quiney  would  probably  not  get  any  Rhenish  at 
Bristol,  but  he  would  find  plenty  of  ordinary  red  wine, 
*'of  an  austere  sharp  taste, "»  which  it  was  customary 

^  Malone,  op,  cit^  ii.  6x5-19.  Malone  g^ives  date  of  Thomas  Quiney 
the  younger's  baptism  as  29th  August,  1619 ;  but  see  Halliwell-PhilUpps, 
off.  eit.,  u,  52. 

*  I  Henry  IV.  ^  ii.  4,  82  ;  Measure  fir  Measure y  iii.  2,  4. 

*  Vernier,  Via  Recta  ad  Vitam  Longanty  1638,  p.  34. 


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26o      SHAKESPEARE'S   DESCENDANTS 

to  roughen  and  make  still  more  astringent  with  sloe 
juice ;  he  could  buy  claret,  a  pure,  quick  wine,  as 
Venner  says,  *' scarcely  inferiour  to  any  of  the  regall 
wines  of  France,"  and  white  wine  of  Orleans,  hardly 
inferior  to  muscadel,  and  the  usual  sacks  and  canaries.^ 
The  spirits,  cordials,  and  vinegar  would  probably  be 
made  at  home.  The  extracts  from  the  same  records 
show  that  the  Quineys  also  dealt  in  tobacco,  which  had 
come  rapidly  into  fashion  in  spite  of  the  royal  counter- 
blasts. Times  had  changed  since  Quiney's  uncle  had 
written  to  warn  his  father  of  the  dangers  of*  the 
town — "Take  heed  of  tobacco  whereof  we  hear  per 
William  Perry*' — and  had  recommended  instead 
"some  good  burned  wine  or  aquavita  and  ale  strongly 
mingled  without  bread  for  a  toast."'  Bristol  supplied 
the  jovial  weed  in  all  the  varieties  of  "  ball,  leaf,  cane, 
and  pudding-packs,"  described  by  the  smoke-hating 
Josuah  Sylvester.*  Aubrey  thus  describes  its  introduc- 
tion into  Wiltshire.  "In  our  part  of  North  Wilts, 
e.g.  Malmesbury  hundred,  it  came  first  into  fashion 
by  Sir  Walter  Long.  I  have  heard  my  grandfather 
Ljrte  say  that  one  pipe  was  handed  from  man  to  man 
round  about  the  table.  They  had  first  silver  pipes ; 
the  ordinary  sort  made  use  of  a  walnut  shell  and  a 
straw.  It  was  sold  then  for  it's  wayte  in  silver.  I  have 
heard  some  of  our  old  yeomen  neighbours  say  that 
when  they  went  to  Malmesbury  or  Chippenham 
market,  they  culled  out  their  biggest  shillings  to  lay  in 
the  scales  against  the  tobacco."*  Another  novelty  was 
caviare,  a  proverbial  object  of  dislike,  which  became 
a  fashionable  provoker  of  thirst  after  Shakespeare's 

1  id,y  pp.  29-33. 

2  See  Abraham  Sturley's  letter  of  4th  November,  1598,  in  Malone,  op. 
cit,  ii.  569-72- 

"  Sylvester,  Tobacco  Batteredy  and  the  Pipes  Shattered  .  .  by  a 
Volley  oj  Holy  Shot  Thundered  /rom  Mount  Helicon^  in  Works^  1641, 
p.  579,  coL  2. 

«  Aubrey,  Brief  Lives^  ed.  Clark,  1898,  ii.  181,  sub  Sir  Walter  Raleigh. 


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THOMAS  QUINEY'S  TRADE  261 

time.  Beaumont  and  Fletcher  had  their  jest  against 
a  simpering  novice,  as  **one  that  ne'er  tasted  caveare, 
nor  knows  the  smack  of  dear  anchovies."*  All  the 
accounts  of  its  introduction  are  derived  from  the 
anonymous  Nouveau  Voyage  du  Nord;  it  appears 
to  have  been  exported  from  the  Obi  and  Volga  by 
Armenian  merchants,  and  to  have  found  its  way  to 
England  through  Genoa  or  Venice.  **  There  is  an 
Italian  sauce,"  says  Venner,  "called  CaviarOy  which 
begins  to  be  in  use  with  us,  such  vaine  affectors  are  we 
of  novelties.  It  is  prepared  of  the  Spawne  of  Sturgion : 
the  very  name  doth  well  expresse  its  nature,  that  it 
is  good  to  beware  of  it."  2 

The  date  of  Thomas  Quiney's  death  is  unknown. 
He  survived  his  brother  Richard,  and  received  an 
annuity  of  £$  charged  by  his  will  on  the  family  lands 
at  Shottery.  He  does  not  seem  to  have  returned  to 
Stratford.  The  tavern  was  taken  over  by  a  Thomas 
Quiney  the  younger,  one  of  the  London  grocer's  sons, 
and  Mrs.  Judith  lived  on  alone;  she  died  at  the 
age  of  seventy-seven,  and  was  buried  at  Stratford  on 
the  9th  of  February,  1662,  according  to  our  way  of 
reckoning. 

It  is  suggested  in  Dr.  Severn's  preface  to  the  Diary 
that  Mr.  Ward  may  have  been  appointed  vicar  by  the 
King  early  in  1662,  Mr.  Alexander  Bean,  the  Presby- 
terian minister,  having  been  removed  soon  after  the 
Restoration.^  If  the  appointment  had  been  made  at 
the  beginning  of  the  year,  the  note  as  to  "Mrs. 
Queeny"  might,  of  course,  be  taken  as  referring  to 
Shakespeare's  daughter.  But  it  appears  that  this  view 
is  incorrect,  and  that  Mr.  Bean  was  only  dismissed 

^  Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  Nice  Valoi^r,  act  v.  sc.  i.  Nares'  Glossary, 
s.v.f  refers  also  to  Randolph,  Muses  Looking-  Glass,  act  ii.  sc.  4  :  "To  feed 
on  caveare,  and  cat  anchovies."  See  Cartwright,  The  Ordinary,  act  ii. 
sc.  I,  in  Dodsley's  Old  Plays,  1826,  voL  x.,  and  the  note  thereon. 

•  Venner,  Via  Recta,  1650,  p.  142. 

'  Ward's  Diary,  p.  16.     Severn's  statement  is  positive. 


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262       SHAKESPEARE'S   DESCENDANTS 

under  the  provisions  of  the  Act  of  Uniformity,  which 
came  into  operation  upon  the  24th  of  August,  1662, 
known  as  ''Black  Bartholomew's  Day."  Mr.  Bean 
would  not  be  reordained  or  take  the  oaths  of  obedience 
and  non-resistance.  Ward  tells  us  how  his  neighbour, 
Mr.  Burges  of  Sutton  Coldfield,  submitted  and  then 
bitterly  repented;  **for  the  leaving  of  his  ministrie 
he  took  much  comfort  in  itt,  since  itt  could  not  bee 
injoyed  but  uppon  the  terms  wherein  now  itt  is."^ 
Ward's  own  appointment  is  to  be  found  in  the  Book 
of  Entries  for  the  diocese,  which  shows  that  he  was 
inducted  on  the  loth  of  December,  1662,  under  the 
patronage  of  King  Charles  II. 

The  Mrs.  Quiney  whom  Mr.  Ward  visited  may  have 
been  the  wife  of  one  of  Judith's  nephews.  William 
Quiney  had  left  the  London  business,  and  had  been 
established  at  Shottery  since  1656 ;  and  Thomas,  his 
brother,  as  we  have  seen,  was  living  at  the  Cage. 
The  grocer's  and  druggist's  business  had  been  carried 
on  in  partnership  with  John  Sadler,  another  Stratford 
man.  The  shop  was  at  the  sign  of  the  *'  Red  Lion  "  in 
Bucklersbury,  at  the  end  of  the  Poultry,  and  close 
to  the  Royal  Exchange.  Mr.  Ward  notes  that  "the 
Exchange  kept  in  Lumbard  Street  before  itt  came  to 
Cornhill."*  This  removal,  however,  had  taken  place 
long  before  Quiney  and  Sadler  sold  Italian  goods 
at  the  ''Red  Lion,"  or  Shakespeare  himself  had  come 
to  town. 

It  was  on  the  23rd  of  January,  1570  (old  style), 
that  the  Queen  dined  with  Sir  Thomas  Gresham,  and 
afterwards  paid  a  State  visit  to  the  "Burse."  She 
inspected  all  the  principal  rooms,  and  especially  the 
magazine  called  the  Pawne,  which  was  "  richly  fur- 
nished with  all  sorts  of  the  finest  wares,"  and  was 
pleased  to  proclaim  that  the  place  should  for  ever  after- 

1  /^,  p.  99.  «  IcL,  p.  297. 


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THE  QUINEYS  OF  BUCKLERSBURY    263 

wards  be  known  as  the  Royal  Exchange.^  The  Poultry 
and  Bucklersbury  both  opened  into  the  wide  markets 
place  of  West  Cheap,  nearly  opposite  to  the  Great 
Conduity  to  which  fresh  water  was  brought  in  pipes 
underground  from  Paddington,  The  whole  street  called 
Bucklersbury,  said  Stow,  was  in  his  time  possessed  on 
both  sides  throughout  by  grocers  and  apothecaries; 
but  a  great  part  of  the  business  carried  on  by  them 
would  now  be  considered  to  belong  to  the  herbalist,  the 
perfumer,  and  the  chemist.^  Shakespeare  must  have 
known  the  place  well,  if  he  lived  in  the  immediate 
neighbourhood.  He  was  fond  of  referring  to  drugs 
and  tinctures.  We  are  told,  for  instance,  of  a  life  in 
love  **as  luscious  as  locusts,"  that  shall  turn  ''as  bitter 
as  coloquintida."'  When  the  heart  wants  some  great 
cordial  it  is  bidden,  ''Get  you  some  of  this  distilled 
Carduus  Benedictus,  and  lay  it  to  your  heart :  it  is  the 
only  thing  for  a  qualm."*  When  the  summer's  sweet- 
ness is  preserved  by  art,  we  have  beauty's  child  remain- 
ing as  a  prisoner  or  hostage — "a  liquid  prisoner  pent 
in  walls  of  glass  "  : — * 

*'  O,  how  much  more  doth  beauty  beauteous  seem 
By  that  sweet  ornament  which  truth  doth  give ! 
The  rose  looks  fair,  but  fairer  we  it  deem 
For  that  sweet  odour  which  doth  in  it  live. 
The  canker*blooms  have  full  as  deep  a  dye 
As  the  perfumed  tincture  of  the  roses, 
Hang  on  such  thorns  and  play  as  wantonly 
When  summer's  breath  their  masked  buds  discloses  : 
But,  for  their  virtue  only  is  their  show, 
They  live  unwoo'd  and  unrespected  fade, 
Die  to  themselves.     Sweet  roses  do  not  so  ; 
Of  their  sweet  breath  are  sweetest  odours  made."* 

*  Nichols,  Progresses  0/  Queen  Elizabeth,  i.  275.     Stow,  Surveyj  ed. 
Strype,  bk.  ii.  p.  135. 

3  Stow,  «.s.,  bk.  iii.  p.  27.     In  ii.  200,  he  speaks  of  its  inhabitants 
as  principally  Dragsters  and  Furriers. 

»  OthellOy  i.  3,  354-5.  *  Much  Ado  about  Nothing,  iii.  4,  73-5. 

*  Sonnet  v.  •  Sonnet  liv. 


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264       SHAKESPEARE'S   DESCENDANTS 

We  have  a  mention  of  the  very  place  in  question 
from  FalstafF  in  the  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor: — 

*'  I  cannot  cog  and  say  thou  art  this  and  that,  like  a  many 
of  these  lisping  hawthorn-buds,  that  come  like  women  in 
man's  apparel,  and  smell  like  Bucklersbury  in  simple- 
time,  "i 

Another  indication  of  Shakespeare's  interest  in  the 
subject  lies  in  the  fact  that  he  employed  a  separate 
druggist  of  his  own.  His  son-in-law  Hall  tells  us 
that  he  himself  employed  Mr.  Court,  of  Stratford, 
but  that  John  Nason  was  Shakespeare's  apothecary. 
He  has  an  entry  in  his  case-book  about  attendance  upon 
John  Nason,  there  described  as  a  barber;  but  Mr. 
Fennell  pointed  to  the  undoubted  fact  that  barbers  in 
those  days  were  not  confined  to  shaving  and  wig- 
making,  but  let  blood  and  drew  teeth,  and  generally 
undertook  the  lower  branches  of  medicine.  There  may 
have  been  some  economy  in  having  a  drugster  to  one- 
self, since  Ward  tells  us  that  '^some  doctors  had  a 
noble  out  of  the  pound  of  their  apothecaries ;  many 
a  crowne,  as  an  apothecarie  in  London  told  mee."^ 
There  was  less  need  of  any  intervention  in  those  days, 
when  everyone  knew  the  virtues  of  herbs,  and  could 
send  out  for  powdered  eye-bright  to  freshen  the  bread 
and  butter,  or  a  pipefull  of  sage,  rosemary,  and  betony 
for  ''rheumatism  in  the  brain,"  as  might  be  required. 
Ward's  diaries  are  full  of  information  on  such  points, 
which  he  perhaps  got  from  the  Quineys.  Liquorice, 
for  instance,  was  much  used  in  the  stillroom.  He  tells 
us  of  a  white  juice,  as  well  as  the  black ;  the  latter 
is  made  **by  juicing  the  little  strings  of  the  roots." 
**  Liquorish  (is)  planted  much  about  Pontefract,  in 
Yorkshire.  The  white  juice  is  deer,  about  4  shillings 
a  pound,  as  I  was  certainly  informed."*    Dr.  Venner 

*  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor^  iii.  3,  76-9. 

^  Ward's  Diary,  p.  278.  *  leL,  p.  290. 


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DRUGGISTS  AND   HERBALISTS        265 

was  very  great  upon  the  excellent  virtues  of  burnet, 
now  mostly  remembered  as  occurring  in  a  Shakespearean 
landscape : — 

**  The  even  mead,  that  erst  brought  sweetly  forth 
The  freckled  cowslip,  burnet  and  green  clover."^ 

It  is  very  effectual  against  the  Plague,  said  the  old 
Doctor,  and  against  other  affections  of  the  heart ;  **  for 
the  leaves  being  put  into  wine,  especially  Claret,  yeeld 
unto  it  not  only  an  excellent  relish  in  drinking,  but 
also  maketh  it  much  more  comfortable  to  the  heart  and 
spirits."'  It  was,  in  fact,  much  the  same  as  bugloss  or 
borage  in  its  effects,  and  its  use  marks  the  chief  stage  in 
the  evolution  of  claret-cup.  But  the  prescription  seems 
to  have  been  unknown  at  Stratford,  where,  according  to 
the  Vicar,  one  came  to  a  tavern,  and  asked  for  a  pint  of 
claret  and  burnet;  and  "the  vintner,  instead  thereof, 
went  and  really  burnt  itt."*  Ising-glass,  again,  was 
usually  described  in  the  dictionaries  as  "a  kind  offish- 
glue  used  in  medicine,  and  brought  from  Iceland " ; 
but  Mr.  Ward  was  always  asking  questions  about  his 
friends'  business;  and  **isinglasse,"  he  writes,  **is  made 
of  the  caul  or  omentum  of  sturgeon,  as  Mr.  Quiny 
told  mee."* 


ELIZABETH    HALL— HER   MARRIAGES — HER  WILL— SUBSEQUENT 
FORTUNES   OF   SHAKESPEARE*S   STRATFORD   PROPERTY 

We  now  return  to  the  story  of  the  elder  branch  of 
the  family.  When  Judith  Quiney's  sons  died  in  1638-9, 
it  became  necessary  to  consider  the  way  in  which  the 
family  estates  were  settled.  There  might  be  no  diffi- 
culty if   Mrs.    Nash  should  have  male  issue,  which 

'  Henry  K,  v.  2,  48-9.  *  Venner,  op.  cit.^  p.  199. 

•  Ward's  Diary ^  p.  103.  *  Af.,  p.  303. 


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266      SHAKESPEARE'S   DESCENDANTS 

seemedy  indeed,  to  be  unlikely ;  but  if  she  had  no  such 
issue,  then  after  her  mother  and  herself  were  dead,  the 
whole  property  would  be  in  Mrs.  Quiney's  power. 
Mrs.  Quiney  might  leave  it  all  to  her  husband  or  his 
family;  but  in  such  a  matter  it  might  fairly  be  pre- 
sumed that  Shakespeare  himself  would  have  wished 
his  '^ niece  Elisabeth"  to  have  the  last  word.  The 
property  was  accordingly  resettled  in  1639.  The 
entail  was  barred,  and  Judith  Quiney's  reversionary 
estate  brought  to  an  end.  The  property  was  settled, 
subject  to  Mrs.  Hall's  life  estate,  upon  Elizabeth  for 
life,  and  her  husband,  Thomas  Nash,  for  life,  if  he 
survived  her ;  after  their  deaths  it  was  entailed  upon  her 
issue  by  that  marriage ;  in  default,  upon  her  issue  by 
any  marriage,  with  a  remainder  to  Mr.  Nash  and  his 
heirs.  Should  the  entail  be  barred,  his  rights  would 
disappear.^  He  seems,  however,  to  have  regarded  it 
all  as  his  own.  They  had  no  child ;  and  he  evidently 
thought  it  impossible  that  Elizabeth  should  marry 
again.  His  will  was  dated  in  1642 ;  but  he  added  a 
verbal  codicil  when  he  died  five  years  afterwards.* 
His  epitaph,  omitting  the  somewhat  trite  Latin 
couplets,  is  to  this  eflFect:  **Heere  resteth  the  body 
of  Thomas  Nashe  Esq.  he  mar :  Elizabeth,  the  davg : 
and  heire  of  lohn  Halle  gent.  He  died  Aprill  4,  A. 
1647,  aged  53."  By  his  will,  as  it  originally  stood, 
he  gave  certain  legacies,  and  made  his  wife  residuary 
legatee  and  executrix  ;  and  as  to  the  real  property,  he 
gave  her  a  life-interest  in  his  house  in  Chapel  Street, 
his  meadows  at  Stratford,  and  his  tithes  in  Shottery ; 
and  he  devised  the  Shakespeare  estate  in  Stratford 
and  London,  by  a  very  imperfect  description,  to  his 
cousin,  Edward  Nash,  and  his  heirs.  By  the  transcript 
of  his  verbal  codicil  he  is  shown  to  have  made  several 
other  bequests,   among  which  were   the    following: 

>  Deed  of  27th  May,  1639,  in  Halliwell-Phillipps,  op,  cit^  ii.  108. 
3  See  M^,  114. 


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WILL  OF  THOMAS  NASH  267 

**To  his  mother  Mrs.  Hall  £$0:  to  Elizabeth  Hatha- 
way j^so:  to  Thomas  Hathaway  £$0:  to  Judith 
Hathaway  ;fio:  to  his  Uncle  and  Aunt  Nash,  each 
twenty  shillings  to  buy  them  rings:  to  his  cousin 
Sadler  and  his  wife  the  same :  to  his  cousin  Richard 
Quiney  and  his  wife  the  same :  to  his  cousin  Thomas 
Quiney  and  his  wife  (Judith)  the  same."  The  altera^ 
tions  made  in  the  disposition  of  his  real  estate  show 
that  he  must  have  forgotten  the  main  provisions  of 
his  will. 

Taking  the  words  of  the  codicil  as  they  appear 
in  Malone's  Appendix,  we  find  that  he  devised  his 
meadows  to  his  wife  and  her  heirs  absolutely  '^to 
the  end  that  they  may  not  be  severed  from  her  own 
land";  and  he  further  declared  ^Uhat  the  inheritance 
of  his  land  given  to  his  cousin,  Edward  Nash,  should  be 
by  him  settled,  after  his  decease,  upon  his  son,  Thomas 
Nash,  and  his  heirs."  ^  The  will  was  duly  proved,  but 
Mrs.  Nash  declined  to  carry  out  the  provisions  that 
purported  to  deal  with  Shakespeare's  estate.  She  took 
the  precaution  of  barring  the  existing  entails  and 
making  a  new  settlement,  of  which,  among  others, 
William  Hathaway  of  Weston-upon-Avon  and  Thomas 
Hathaway  of  Stratford  were  trustees.  Its  effect  was  to 
place  the  whole  property  at  her  own  disposal,  subject  to 
her  mother's  life-estate.  These  proceedings  led  to  a 
Chancery  suit,  which  Mrs.  Nash  was  able  to  compromise 
upon  favourable  terms,  her  grandfather's  estate  at 
Stratford  being  secured  to  her  and  her  heirs,  subject  to 
a  promise  that  Edward  Nash  should  have  an  option  of 
purchase  at  her  death.* 

On  the  5th  of  June,  1649,  Elizabeth  Nash  was 
married  to  John  Barnard,  son  of  Mr.  Baldwin  Barnard 
of  Abington,  near  Northampton.  The  manor  of 
Abington  had  been  in  the  Barnard  family  for  more 

'  Malone,  op.  cit,  ii.  62a 

'  Halliwell-Pbillipps,  op,  ciL,  ii.  1 15-16. 


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268       SHAKESPEARE'S  DESCENDANTS 

than  two  hundred  years.^  Mr.  John  Barnard  was  a 
widower  with  a  large  family.  He  had  married  a 
daughter  of  Sir  Clement  Edmonds,  of  Preston,  a 
village  close  to  Abington  ;  ^  and  his  wife  had  died  in 
1642,  leaving  four  sons  and  as  many  daughters.  At 
the  time  of  Mr,  Barnard's  second  marriage,  three  of 
the  girls  were  still  in  the  schoolroom.  Within  a  short 
time  after  her  marriage,  Mrs.  Barnard  was  summoned 
to  attend  her  mother  in  her  last  illness,  which,  as  we 
have  already  noticed,  ended  fatally  on  the  nth  of  July 
in  the  same  year.  On  her  death,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Barnard 
took  possession  of  New  Place  and  the  rest  of  the 
Stratford  property ;  and  they  seem  to  have  remained 
there  at  least  until  1653,  when  a  certain  settlement 
made  by  them  is  known  to  have  been  witnessed  by 
persons  residing  at  Stratford.  It  may  have  been  a 
few  months  afterwards  that  they  moved  to  the  family 
place  at  Abington,  not,  we  may  suppose,  without 
some  regret ;  for  Mr.  Ward  has  preserved  a  Stratford 
saying  that  **  Northamptonshire  wants  three  fs  ;  that 
is,  fish,  fowl,  and  fuel."^  Abington  Hall  was  in  a 
somewhat  dreary  situation,  fronting  upon  the  road  from 
Northampton  to  Cambridge,  which  at  that  time  ran 
between  great  tracts  of  common-field  on  either  side. 
We  hear  of  no  traditions  about  the  house,  except  a 

*  Bridges,  History  and  Antiquities  of  NorthantSy  ed.  Whalley,  1791, 
i.  401.  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Sir  Nicholas  Lyllyng,  lord  of  the  manor 
temp.  Henry  V.,  married  Robert  Bernard,  who  became  possessed  of  the 
manor  and  advowson  in  the  right  of  his  wife.  "  In  this  family  they  re- 
mained for  upwards  of  two  hundred  years,  till  purchased  of  Sir  John 
Bernard \n  1671,  by  William  Thursfy,  Esquire." 

^  Commonly  called  Preston-Deanery,  about  6  miles  away,  and  4I 
miles  south  of  Northampton,  in  Wimersley  Hundred.  See  Bridges, 
op,  cit.f  i.  381. 

'  Ward's  Diary,  p.  133.  Halliwell-PhiUipps,  op.  city  ii.  117,  says: 
"  How  long  after  their  marriage  they  occupied  New  Place  does  not 
appear,  but  it  is  mentioned  as  in  his  (John  Barnard's)  tenure  in  1652, 
and,  from  the  names  of  the  witnesses,  it  may  perhaps  be  assumed  that 
Mrs.  Barnard  was  living  at  Stratford  when  she  executed  the  deed  of 
1653." 


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SECOND  MARRIAGE  OF  MRS.   NASH    269 

few  suggestions  preserved  by  Malone.  "  If  any  of 
Shakespeare's  manuscripts  remained  in  his  grand- 
daughter's custody  at  the  time  of  her  second  marriage 
(and  some  letters^  at  least,  she  surely  must  have  had), 
they  probably  were  then  removed  to  the  house  of  her 
new  husband  at  Abington."  This  does  not  allow  for 
their  residence  at  Stratford,  but  the  point  does  not 
very  much  affect  his  argument.  *'Sir  Hugh'Clopton, 
who  was  born  two  years  after  her  death,  mentioned  to 
Mr.  Macklin,  in  the  year  1742,  an  old  tradition  that 
she  had  carried  away  with  her  from  Stratford  many  of 
her  grandfather's  papers."  Mr.  Barnard  was  created 
a  Baronet  by  King  Charles  IL  on  the  2Sth  of 
November,  1661,  though  he  is  generally  called  ^*Sir 
John  Barnard,  knight."  As  to  the  papers,  Malone 
continued,  ''on  the  death  of  Sir  John  Barnard  they 
must  have  fallen  into  the  hands  of  Mr.  Edward  Bagley, 
Lady  Barnard's  executor;  and  if  any  descendant  of 
that  gentleman  be  now  living,  in  his  custody  they 
probably  remain."^ 

Most  of  Sir  John  Barnard's  children  died  in  his  life^ 
time  without  living  issue.  The  survivors  were  three  of 
his  daughters — Elizabeth,  wife  of  Henry  Gilbert  of 
Locko  in  Derbyshire ;  Mary,  widow  of  Thomas  Higgs 
of  Colesborne,  Gloucestershire ;  and  Eleanor,  wife  of 
Samuel  Cotton  of  Henwick  in  the  county  of  Bedford.^ 

Elizabeth  Barnard  died  at  Abington  Hall  about  the 
middle  of  February,  1669-70.  The  entry  in  the  register 
is  as  follows:  ''Madam  Elizabeth  Bernard,  wife  of 
Sir  John  Bernard  kt.,  was  buried  i*]^  Febr.,  1669." 
It  is  believed  that  she  and  her  husband  were  both  laid 
in  a  vault  under  the  chancel  of  the  parish  church  at 
Abington,  though  their  remains  have  since  been  re- 
moved. A  tombstone  still  bears  a  pompous  epitaph  in 
memory  of  Sir  John.  "  Here  rest  the  remains,"  as  we 
may  translate  it,  "of  a  man  of  most  noble  race,  illustrious 

^  Malone,  op,  cit,,  ii.  623,  note.  '  /bid,,  625,  note. 


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270      SHAKESPEARE'S  DESCENDANTS 

through  his   father,   grandfather,   great  -  grand&ther, 
great-great-grandfather,   and  other   ancestors    having 
been  lords  of  this  town  of  Abington  for  more  than  200 
years :  he  yielded  to  Fate  in  the  6gth  year  of  his  age, 
on  the  5th  day  before  the  Nones  of  March  in  the  year 
of  the  Nativity  1673."    The  date  in  modern  parlance 
was  the  3rd  of  March,  1673-4.     Lady  Barnard's  hus- 
band, it  was  complained,  did  not  show  his  respect  for 
her  memory  by  a  monument  or  inscription  of  any 
kind;    **he  seems  not  to  have  been  sensible  of  the 
honourable  alliance  he  had  made."     ''Shakespeare's 
granddaughter,"  said  Malone,  with  a  somewhat  pathetic 
incongruity,  ''would  not,  at  this  day,  go  to  her  grave 
without  a  memorial,"^     It  seems,  however,  that  Sir 
John  sold  the  property  very  soon  after  his  wife's  death. 
Dame  Elizabeth's  will  was  dated  the  29th  of  January, 
1669-70,  and  was  proved  in  London  "at  Exeter  House 
in  the  Strand"  on  the  4th  of  March  following.*    Its 
effect  was  as  follows,  omitting  the  formal  introduction. 
Whereas  by  a  settlement  made  in  1653  the  estate  at 
New  Place  and  the  common-field  land  was  given  upon 
trust  for  sale,  after  the  deaths  of  Sir  John  and  Dame 
Elizabeth  Barnard,  the  surviving  trustee  being  Henry 
Smith  of  Stratford,  now  it  was  directed  that  such  sale 
was  to  take  place  as  speedily  as  possible  after  Sir  John's 
decease,  the  testatrix  adding,  "  that  my  loving  cousin 
Edward  Nash,  esq.  shall  have  the  first  offer  or  refusall 
thereof  according  to   my  promise  formerly  made  to 
him."    Some  of  the  legacies  are  worth  mentioning. 
An  annuity  of  £5y  to  be  redeemed  by  a  capital  sum  of 
;^40  in  certain  events,  was  given  to  Judith  Hathaway, 
one  of   the  daughters  of    Lady   Barnard's   kinsman, 
Thomas  Hathaway,  late  of  Stratford,  and  then  de- 
ceased ;  a  sum  of  £$owaLS  secured  to  Mrs.  Joan  Kent, 
wife  of  Edward  Kent,  another  daughter  of  Thomas 

^  Ibid,,  624,  note. 

*  Copy  in  Halliwell-Phillipps,  op,  cii,,  it.  62-3. 


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LADY  BARNARD'S  WILL  271 

Hathaway,  with  provisions  in  certain  events  for  paying 
it  to  her  son  Edward ;  another  sum  of  £30  was  given 
to  the  child  Edward  Kent  "towards  putting  him  out 
as  an  apprentice " ;  the  sum  of  £/[0  apiece  was  given 
to  Rose,  Elizabeth,  and  Susanna,  three  other  of  the 
daughters  of  Thomas  Hathaway.  The  trustee  was  to 
have  ;^5  for  his  pains,  and  all  the  rest  of  the  money 
produced  by  the  sale  was  to  go  to  Lady  Barnard's 
loving  kinsman,  Mr.  Edward  Bagley,  citizen  of  London, 
who  was  appointed  executor.  If  Mr.  Nash  did  not 
accept  the  option  of  purchase,  the  trustee  was  to  make 
the  same  offer  to  Mr.  Bagley.  The  houses  in  Henley 
Street  were  left  to  the  family  of  the  Harts,  the  inn  and 
the  house  next  adjoining,  with  the  barn  thereto  belong- 
ing, being  entailed  upon  Thomas  Hart  and  the  heirs  of 
his  body,  and  in  default  of  such  issue,  upon  his  brother 
George  for  a  similar  estate. 

The  clause  as  to  the  occupation  of  New  Place  was 
as  follows:  '^That  the  executors  or  administrators  of 
my  said  husband  Sir  John  Barnard  shall  have  and 
enjoy  the  use  and  benefit  of  my  said  house  in  Stratford 
called  the  New  Place,  with  the  orchard,  garden,  &c., 
for  and  during  the  space  of  six  months  next  after  the 
decease  of  him  the  said  Sir  John  Barnard."  Sir  John 
died  intestate,  and  administration  of  his  effects  was 
granted  on  the  7th  of  November,  1674,  to  Mr.  Gilbert, 
Mrs.  Higgs,  and  Mrs.  Cotton.  "I  know  not,"  said 
Malone,  "whether  any  descendant  of  these  be  now 
living :  but  if  that  should  be  the  case,  among  their 
papers  may  probably  be  found  some  fragment  or  other 
relating  to  Shakespeare.^  Neither  Mr.  Nash  nor  Mr. 
Bagley  appears  to  have  exercised  the  option  of  pur- 
chase given  by  the  will ;  and  the  property  was  accord- 
ingly sold  by  the  trustee  in  1675  to  Sir  Edward  Walker 
of  Clopton.  He  was  a  member  of  an  ancient  family  of 
Walkers,  long  settled  at  Nether  Stowey  in  Somerset, 

^  Malone,  u,s. 


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272       SHAKESPEARE'S   DESCENDANTS 

where  they  held  the  old  castle  and  a  red-deer  park, 
with  other  property  in  various  parts  of  the  county. 
Sir  Edward  gave  the  Shakespeare  estate  to  his  daugh- 
ter Barbara,  wife  of  Sir  John  Clopton,  with  remainder 
after  death  to  her  son  Edward  ;  but  the  settlement  was 
altered  after  Sir  Edward  Walker's  death  in  1677.  Sir 
John  Clopton,  by  some  family  arrangement,  obtained 
the  complete  power  of  disposal ;  and  when  his  son 
Hugh  was  engaged  to  Miss  Millward  in  1702,  he  chose 
to  pull  down  the  old  mansion,  and  to  rebuild  it  on  a 
different  plan,  in  order  to  provide  a  good  modern  house 
for  the  bride.^ 

Mr.  Ward  seems  to  have  felt  much  interest  in  the 
earlier  changes  of  ownership,  and  he  has  preserved 
several  stories  about  the  new  purchaser  and  his  family. 
"  Sir  Edward  Walker,"  he  says,  *'  was  secretarie  to  the 
Earl  of  Arundel,  when  hee  went  embassador  to  the 
Emperor  about  restitution  of  the  palatinate.  Hee  was 
secretarie  to  the  same  Earl  when  hee  was  general  of  the 
King's  forces  against  the  Scots.  "^  Of  the  employ- 
ment of  secretaries  upon  such  missions  it  was  said : 
^' As  in  a  chimney  the  brazen  andirons  stand  for  state, 
while  the  dogs  do  the  service,  so  in  embassies  it  was 
usual  formerly  to  have  a  Civilian  employed  with  a 
Lord,  the  one  for  state,  and  the  other  for  transactions." 
Mr.  Ward  adds  that  the  same  gentleman,  by  the  King's 
command,  '^  wrote  the  actions  of  the  warre  in  1644": 
'^  I  saw  itt  (the  book),  and  King  Charles  the  First  his 
correcting  of  itt,  with  his  owne  hand-writing ;  for 
Sir  Edward's  maner  was  to  bring  itt  to  the  King  every 
Saturday,  after  diner,  and  then  the  King  putt  out  and 
putt  in,  with  his  owne  hand,  what  hee  pleased."*  The 
work  was  first  published  under  the  title  of  Iter  Catxh- 
linum,  and  appeared  in  1705  as  Historical  Discourses 

^  HaUiwell-Phillipps,  op,  cit, ,  ii.  1 19.     The  subsequent  history  of  New 
Place  is  carefully  traced,  ibid,y  120-135. 
'  Ward's  Diaryy  p.  180.  »  Ibid, 


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SIR  EDWARD  WALKER  OF  CLOPTON    273 

in  folio,  with  a  large  print  of  Charles  I.  and  of  the 
author  writing  on  a  drum.^  Its  author  was  regarded 
as  being  Secretary  of  State  for  War.  According  to 
Symonds'  Diary  he  was  knighted  by  the  King  at  his 
winter-quarters  in  Oxford  on  Sunday,  the  9th  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1644-5  ;  *  and  he  was  soon  afterwards  appointed 
Garter  King  at  Arms,  Returning  to  Ward's  conver- 
sations, we  learn  how  the  Queen  Mother  of  France  died 
at  *' Agrippina,"  or  Cologne,  in  1642,  and  her  son 
Louis  XIIL  soon  afterwards,  **  for  whom  King  Charles 
mourned  in  Oxford  in  purple,  which  is  prince's  mourn- 
ing."* ugjj.  Edward  Walker  went  to  the  King  im- 
mediately after  King  Charles  the  First  had  his  head 
cut  off;  hee  carried  but  forty  pound  along  with  him, 
and  one  twenty,  pound,  which  hee  received  from 
England  in  all  the  twelve  years.  Hee  sales  the  Duke 
of  Ormond  and  my  Lord  Chancellor  kept  but  two  men 
apeece  when  they  were  beyond  sea  with  the  King."* 
Lady  Clopton  talked  about  foreign  convents,  and  how 
the  nuns-  had  *'two  yeers'  time  to  make  trial,"  even 
though  they  wore  the  habits  of  their  order  in  the 
second  twelvemonth. *»  Her  father  declaimed  against 
the  French  noblemen,  who  only  took  up  religion  for 
fashion's  sake,*  but  praised  the  Dutch  for  their  con- 
tinual charity  :  **  In  Holland,  every  Sunday,  there  is  a 
collection  in  their  churches  for  the  poor,  and  in  such 
a  church  as  ours  att  Stratford,  five  or  ten  pounds  may 
bee  gatherd;  every  one  gives  something."^  **He 
told  mee  hee  carried  the  garter  to  the  Marquis  of  Bran- 
denburg, and  had  125  pound  for  itt;  that  hee  had  a 
stately  palace  at  Berline  ;  that  hee  is  not  such  a  drinker 
as  people  say.     Sir  Edward  said  hee  dined  with  him, 

^  See  description  in  Lowndes,  Bihliog.  Manual^  1864,  v.  p.  2,811. 
'  Symonds'  Diary y  ed.  C.  E.  Long,  1859,  p.  162. 
»  Ward's  Diary ^  p.  177.  *  Id.y^  137. 

»  Id,,  p.  13a  «  Af.,  p.  131. 

"^  Id,,p,  151.     He  adds:   "Wee  in  England  give  only  at  the  Sacra- 
ment,". 

T 


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274       SHAKESPEARE'S   DESCENDANTS 

and  protested  that  hee  had  risen  from  the  table 
thirstie."^  Something,  too,  was  said  about  the  Great 
Fire,  which,  according  to  the  vicar,  began  **  in  Pudding 
Lane,  in  one  Mr.  Farmer's  house" ;  but  the  name  was 
really  "  Farryner,"  as  it  appears  in  the  depositions.* 
**  Almanack-makers  doe  bring  their  almanacks  to 
Roger  le  Estrange,  and  hee  licenses  them.  Sir  Edward 
Walker  told  mee  hee  askt  him,  and  hee  confest  that 
most  of  them  did  foretel  the  fire  of  London  last  year, 
but  hee  caused  itt  to  bee  put  out  1 "  • 

^  liL.p.  137. 

*  See  AWerif  Jlist,  and  Ant.  of  London  ^  1827,  i.  403. 

•  Ward's  Diary ^  p.  94. 


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ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  SHAKESPEARE 
IN  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY 


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ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  SHAKESPEARE 
IN  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY 


L  HOWELL'S  LETTERS 

I 

HOWELL'S  RELATIONS  WITH  BEN  JONSON — HIS  LINES  ON  DAVIES' 
WELSH  GRAMMAR — LONG  MELFORD  IN  SHAKESPEARE  AND  IN 
HOWELL'S  LETTERS 

IN  our  examination  of  various  anecdotes  preserved 
by  those  who  had  special  facilities  for  knowing 
about  Shakespeare  and  his  friends,  we  shall  begin  with 
James  Howell,  who  must  still  be  considered  the  prince 
of  letter-writers  in  his  age,  though  many  attempts  have 
been  made  from  time  to  time  to  discredit  his  accuracy 
in  particular  statements.  He  may  fairly  be  counted 
among  the  poet's  contemporaries,  since  he  was  born  in 
1594;  ^"d  it  should  also  be  observed  that  he  had  left 
Oxford,  and  was  well  known  in  London  society  for 
some  time  before  Shakespeare's  death. ^  He  was  a 
loving  **son  and  servitor"  to  Ben  Jonson,  with  whom 
he  kept  up  a  delightful  correspondence,  and  on  whose 


*  Jesus  CoUeg-e,  Oxford,  B.A.,  17th  December,  1613. 
Ho'Eliafug^The  Familiar  Letters  of  James  Howell  .  .  . 
Joseph  Jacobs,  1892,  introduction,  pp.  xxvi.-xxviii. 

277 


See  EpistoUr 
edited  .  .   by 


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278    ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  SHAKESPEARE 

death  he  composed  a  manly  decastich  of  verse. ^  We 
quote  a  few  sentences  from  one  or  two  of  these  letters : 
**Fa[ther]  Ben,  ...  I  thank  you  for  the  last  regcUo 
you  gave  me  at  your  Musoeumj  and  for  the  good  com- 
pany. I  heard  you  censured  lately  at  Court,  that  you 
have  lighted  too  foul  upon  Sir  InigOy  and  that  you 
write  with  a  Porcupine's  quill  dipt  in  too  much  gall. 
Excuse  me  that  I  am  so  free  with  you  ;  it  is  because 
I  am,  in  no  common  way  of  Friendship — Yours,  J.H."* 
In  a  similar  strain  he  writes  once  more:  ^^The  Fangs 
of  a  Bear,  and  the  Tusks  of  a  wild  Boar,  do  not  bite 
worse,  and  make  deeper  gashes,  than  a  Goose-quill, 
sometimes  .  .  .  Your  quill  hath  prov'd  so  to  Mr. 
Jones;  but  the  Pen  wherewith  you  have  so  gash'd  him, 
it  seems,  was  made  rather  of  a  Porcupine  than  a 
Goose-quill,  it  is  so  keen  and  firm."* 

In  a  letter  addressed  **to  my  Father  Mr.  Ben. 
Johnson,"  he  criticised  "the  strong  sinewy  labours" 
that  had  produced  such  strenuous  lines.  We  omit  the 
Latin  quotations  with  which  the  letters  were  larded 
according  to  the  taste  of  the  age.  "There's  no  great 
Wit  without  some  mixture  of  madness ;  so  saith  the 
Philosopher:  Nor  was  he  a  fool  who  answer'd  •  •  . 
nor  small  wit  without  some  allay  of  foolishness. 
Touching  the  first,  it  is  verify'd  in  you,  for  I  find  that 
you  have  been  oftentimes  mad  ;  you  were  mad  when 
you  writ  your  Fox,  and  madder  when  you  writ  your 
Alchymist;  you  were  mad  when  you  writ  Catilin,  and 
stark  mad  when  you  writ  Sejanus;  but  when  you  writ 
your  Epigrams,  and  the  Magnetick  Lady,  you  were  not 
so  mad  :  Insomuch  that  I  perceive  there  be  degrees  of 
madness  in  you.     Excuse  me  that  I  am  so  free  with 

^  upon  the  Poet  of  his  TinUf  Benjamin  Jonson^  his  honoured  Friend 
and  Father,  being  the  twelfth  elegy  in  Jonsonus  Virhius,  (Works  of 
Jonson,  ed.  Gifford,  1838,  p.  796.) 

3  Epp,  Ho'EL,  u.s,j  p.  324  (bk.  i.  §  6,  let.  20,  dated  Westm[inster], 
3  o/Majy  1635). 

•  Id,  p.  376  (bk.  iL  let  2  :    Westm.,  sJtUy  1635). 


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HOWELL  AND  BEN  JONSON  279 

you.  The  madness  I  mean  is  that  divine  Fury,  that 
heating  and  heightning  spirit  which  Ovid  speaks  of 
...  I  cannot  yet  light  upon  Dr.  Davies's  Welsh 
Grammar,  before  Christmas  I  am  promis'd  one."* 
When  the  book  arrived,  Howell  thought  it  better  than 
any  of  the  *' Accidences"  used  for  teaching  Irish  and 
Basque ;  he  makes  no  mention  of  the  famous  Grammar 
published  by  Gri£Gith  Roberts  at  Milan,  in  1567. 
^^  Father  Ben,  you  desir'd  me  lately  to  procure  you 
Dr.  Davies^s  Welsh  Grammar,  to  add  to  those  many 
you  have ;  I  have  lighted  upon  one  at  last,  and  I  am 
glad  I  have  it  in  so  seasonable  a  time  that  it  may  serve 
for  a  New-year's-gift,  in  which  quality  I  send  it 
you :  .  .  . 

''  *  'Twas  a  tough  task,  believe  it,  thus  to  tame 
A  wild  and  wealthy  Language,  and  to  frame 
Grammatic  toils  to  curb  her,  so  that  she 
Now  speaks  by  Rules,  and  sings  by  Prosody : 
Such  is  the  strength  of  Art  rough  things  to  shape. 
And  of  rude  Commons  rich  Inclosures  make.*  *'^ 

In  a  letter  to  **Sir  Tho.  Hawk  "[ins]  he  tells  us  of 
a  meeting  with  his  '^Father"  which  has  a  peculiar 
interest  in  connection  with  the  current  story  about  the 
causes  of  Shakespeare's  death.  /'  I  was  invited  yester- 
night to  a  solemn  Supper,  by  B,J.y  where  you  were 
deeply  remember'd ;  there  was  good  company,  excellent 
cheer,  choice  wines,  and  jovial  welcome :  One  thing 
intervene,  which  almost  spoil'd  the  relish  of  the  rest, 
that  B.  began  to  engross  all  the  discourse,  to  vapour 
extremely  of  himself,  and,  by  vilifying  others,  to 
magnify  his  own  Muse^  71  CaJ  buzz'd  me  in  the  ear, 
that  tho'  Ben.  had  barrell'd  up  a  great  deal  of  know- 

*  /ct,  p.  267  (t.  §5,  let.  16;  We$tm,j  2^  June  1629). 

'  Id,,  p,  276  (i.  §  5,  let.  26  :  Cal.  Apr,  1629).  The  lines  proclaiming 
Davies'  superiority  to  the  Irish  and  "Bascuence"  Accidences,  occur  in 
the  middle  of  this  effusion. 

•  t.e.  Thomas  Carew.  See  Carew's  Poems,  ed.  Vincent,  1899,  introd. 
pp.  xxiv.-xxv. 


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28o    ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  SHAKESPEARE 

ledge,  yet  it  seems  he  had  not  read  the  Ethiques,  which, 
among  other  precepts  of  Morality,  forbid  self-commen- 
dation. .  .  .  But  for  my  part,  I  am  content  to  dispense 
with  this  Roman  infirmity  of  jB.,  now  that  time  hath 
snowed  upon  his  pericranium.^^ ^ 

Howell's  reference  to  the  **rude  commons"  and 
**rich  inclosures,"  in  the  poem  on  Davies'  Grammar 
above  cited,  may  very  well  have  been  suggested  by 
a  Shakespearean  instance.  It  will  be  remembered  that 
in  the  second  part  of  Henry  VI.  a  certain  petition  is 
presented  to  the  Lord  Protector. 

''Suf,  What's  yours  ?  What's  here?  {Reads.)  'Against 
the  Duk6  of  Suffolk,  for  enclosing  the  commons  of  Melford. ' 
How  now,  sir  knave  ! 

^*  Petitioner.  Alas,  sir,  I  am  but  a  poor  petitioner  of  our 
whole  township. "  * 

We  do  not  know  what  the  circumstances  may  have 
been  to  which  the  petition  related ;  but  Shakespeare 
may  have  been  familiar  with  the  old  local  history 
through  the  Cloptons,  some  of  the  family  having  long 
been  established  at  Melford  and  others  at  Cockfield,  in 
Suffolk.  Mr.  Ward  notes  in  his  Diary  that  Walter 
Clopton  became  owner  of  the  Manor  of  Cockfield,  in 
Essex,  {sic\  **and  assumed  the  name  of  itt."'    Long 

^  Epp,  Ho-El^  pp.  403-4  (ii.  let.  13 :  Westnu^  5  Apr.  1636). 

«  2  Henry  VL,  \.  3,  23-7. 

'  Diary  of  the  Rev.  John  Ward,  ed.  C.  Severn,  1839,  p.  186.  The 
church  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  Long  Melford,  was  rebuilt  by  Sir  William 
Clopton  (d.  1446),  of  Kentwell  Hall,  and  other  rich  laymen  of  the  parish. 
William's  son  John  (d.  1497)  continued  his  father's  work,  and  added  the 
beautiful  and  unique  Lady  Chapel  at  the  east  end  of  the  building.  The 
ornamental  ''flushwork"  of  the  parapets  of  the  Lady  Chapel,  south  side 
of  the  church,  and  south  porch,  takes  the  form  of  inscriptions  asking 
prayers  for  the  benefactors  of  the  church.  Among  these  are  the 
Cloptons  and  their  wives,  and  a  butler  in  their  family.  In  the  north 
aisle  of  the  choir  is  the  altar-tomb,  with  effigy,  of  the  elder  Clopton, 
hard  by  which  are  the  handsome  brasses  of  his  two  wives,  and 
of  other  members  of  the  family.  East  of  William  Clopton's  tomb,  and 
north  of  the  chancel,  is  the  mortuary  chapel  of  the  Cloptons,  containing 
some  later  monuments  and  incised  slabs  ;  it  is  separated  by  a  wall,  in 


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HOWELL  AT  LONG  MELFORD         281 

Melford  was  described  as  **one  of  the  biggest  towns 
in  England  that  is  not  a  market-town."  **The  Lady 
Rivers,"  says  Cox  in  his  history  of  the  county,  **had 
a  house  in  this  town  in  the  time  of  the  rebellion." 
Fuller  says  it  was  the  first-fruits  of  plundering  in 
England,  and  Floyd  adds  that  she  lost  the  value  of 
;f20,ooo.  The  house  had  belonged  to  Sir  Thomas 
Savage,  created  Lord  Savage  in  1626 ;  he  was  suc- 
ceeded in  1635  by  his  son  Thomas,  the  second  Lord, 
who  inherited  the  Earldom  of  Rivers  four  years  after- 
wards. Howell  was  employed  for  a  short  time  as 
tutor  in  the  family,  and  he  has  left  a  very  interesting 
description  of  the  house  as  it  stood  in  its  perfection, 
before  it  became  the  first-fruits  of  violence.  He  says 
that  he  never  saw  a  gre^t  mansion  so  neatly  kept:  *'  the 
Kitchen  and  .  .  .  other  Ofifices  of  noise  and  drudgery 
are  at  the  fag-end  ;  there's  a  Back-gate  for  the  Beggars 
and  the  meaner  sort  of  Swains  to  come  in  at."  The 
gardens  were  full  of  ** costly  choice  flowers,"  and  fruits 
of  many  kinds:  *'here  you  have  your  Bon  Christian 
Pear  and  Bergamot  in  perfection,  your  Mtiscadell 
Grapes  in  such  plenty,  that  there  are  some  Bottles 
of  Wine  sent  every  year  to  the  King";  and  Mr. 
Daniel,  a  worthy  neighbour,  made  **good  store  in  his 
Vintage."  The  park  had  once  belonged  to  the  Abbot 
of  Bury  St.  Edmund's,  and  had  probably  been  inclosed 
out  of  the  commons.     The  park,  '^for  a  chearful  rising 

which  is  a  small  lychnoscope,  from  the  aisle  of  which  it  is  the  termina- 
tion. Between  it  and  the  Hig-h  Altar  is  the  tomb  of  Sir  John  Clopton 
under  a  very  depressed  ogee  arch  :  it  has  no  effigy,  and  is  supposed  to 
have  served  the  purpose  of  an  Esuster  sepulchre.  The  arms  of  Clop- 
ton occur  in  the  stained  glass  at  the  west  end  of  the  aisles.  Sir  John 
Clopton  was  a  Lancastriani  and  was  implicated  in  the  charge  for  which 
John,  twelfth  earl  of  Oxford,  and  his  son  Aubrey,  were  executed  in  1462. 
Kentwell  Hall,  the  residence  of  the  Cloptons,  is  about  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  north-west  of  the  church ;  Melford  Hall,  where  Howell  lived  for 
a  time,  is  about  the  same  distance  south-east  See  the  late  Sir  William 
Parker's  History  of  Lang  Melford^  1873 ;  Murray's  Handbook  to  the  Eastern 
Counties,  1892,  pp.  125-6. 


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282    ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  SHAKESPEARE 

Ground,  for  Groves  and  Browsings  for  the  Deer,  for 
rivulets  of  Water,  may  compare  with  any  for  its  high- 
ness in  the  whole  Land ;  it  is  opposite  to  the  front  of 
the  great  House,  whence  from  the  Gallery  one  may  see 
much  of  the  Game  when  they  are  a-hunting."^  It 
is  somewhat  singular  that  when  the  Abbey  was  dis- 
solved, the  profits  of  the  park  were  valued  at  no  more 
than  ten  shillings  a  year. 

II 

HOWBLL  ON   TRADE   AND   COMMERCE — WINES   AND   ALES 

Howell  is  one  of  the  chief  authorities  on  the  trade 
and  commerce  of  his  time.  We  can  learn  from  him, 
for  example,  the  meaning  of  all  the  Shakespearean 
references  to  small  ale  and  good  double  beer,  to  sack 
and  sherris  and  cups  of  Canary.  Of  the  first  he  says 
jestingly :  *Mn  this  Island  the  old  drink  was  Ale^  .  .  . 
But  since  Beer  hath  hopp'd  in  among  us.  Ale  is 
thought  to  be  much  adulterated,  and  nothing  so  good 
as  Sir  John  Oldcastle  and  Smug  the  Smith  was  us'd  to 
drink."*  He  is  referring  to  his  visits  to  the  theatre  on 
Bank-side,  for  he  writes  to  Mr.  Caldwall  from  York, 
'M  am  the  same  to  you  this  side  Trent,  as  I  was  the 
last  time  we  cross'd  the  Thames  together  to  see  Smug 
the  Smith,  and  so  back  to  the  Still^yard.'^^  When  he 
had  been  ill  in  Paris,  he  tells  his  father  on  another 
occasion,  the  doctors  and  surgeons  who  attended  him 
came  to  pay  him  a  visit  on  his  recovery,  and  among 
other  things,  they  began  talking  about  wine ;  ^^  and  so 

*  Epp,  Ho  EL,  pp.  106-7  (>•  §  2i  let  8:  ''From  the  Lord  Savag^e's 
House  in  Long-Melford,"  20  May  1619.  The  words  **  the  Lord  Savag-e  '* 
show  that  Howell  re-dated  the  letter  for  publication,  as  they  could  not 
have  been  written  in  1619. 

'  /fit,  p.    451  (ii.  let.  54  :  Westm,,  17  Oct,  1634). 

'  /i.,  p.  247  (i.  §  5,  let.  I  :  York,  13  July  1627).  Smug  the  Smith  is 
here  used  as  the  name  of  a  character  in  The  Merry  Devil  of  Edmonton., 
John  Taylor,  Pennyles  Pilgrimage,  uses  the  phrase  *'a  mad  smuggy 
smith"  (ed.  Hindley,  1872,  p.  11). 


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ALE  AND  BEER  283 

by  degrees  they  fell  upon  other  beverages ;  and  one 
Doctor  in  the  company  who  had  been  in  England,  told 
me  that  we  have  a  Drink  in  England  call'd  Ale,  which 
he  thought  was  the  wholsomest  liquor  ...  for  while 
the  Englishmen  drank  only  Ale,  they  were  strong, 
brawny,  able  Men,  and  could  draw  an  arrow  an  ell 
long ;  but  when  they  fell  to  wine  and  beer,  they  are 
found  to  be  much  impair'd  in  their  strength  and  age  : 
so  the  Ale  bore  away  the  bell  among  the  Doctors/'  ^ 

In  LfOW  Germany,  the  Netherlands,  Denmark,  etc., 
he  tells  us,  beer  was  almost  the  universal  drink.^  We 
may  note,  however,  that  the  Dutch  were  wine-drinkers, 
the  Rhine-wines  being  the  sole  staple  of  the  town  of 
Dort;  Middelburg  was  the  centre  of  the  trade  in 
French  and  Spanish  wines.^  We  might  make  another 
exception  for  the  Court  at  Elsinore,  where  the  King 
the  '^  swaggering  up-spring"  reeled,  and  drained  down 
huge  cups  of  Rhenish.*  **  In  the  Duke  of  Saxe*s 
Country  there  is  Beer  as  yellow  as  Gold,  made  of 
Wheat '';^  and  Holinshed  tells  us  that  ''yellow  as  a 
gold  noble"  was  a  phrase  of  the  English  topers.* 
This  Saxon  beer,  it  should  be  observed,  was  the  same 
as  the  Brunswick  mum,  for  which  a  brewery  was  at 
one  time  set  up  in  Stratford ;  the  promoters  hoped  that 
their  town  would  become  the  head  of  the  mum-trade, 
and  might  even  be  known  as  "  New  Brunswick."  The 
Vicar  of  Stratford  complains  in  his  Diary  that  ''we 
have  utterly  lost  what  was  the  thing  that  preserved 
beer  so  long,  before  hops  were  found  out  in  England."^ 
Sir  Hugh  Piatt  of  Lincoln's  Inn  thought  that  it  might 
have  been  done  by  using  wormwood,  centaury,  hepatic 

'  Epp,  Ho-El^y  pp.  136-7  (L  §  2,  let  21,  from  Paris,  lo  Dec,  1622). 
^  Id.,  p,  451,  as  note. 

'  Id,,  pp.  126-7  (i*  §  2>  lc^«  15  •  Antwerp,  1  May  1622). 
*  Hamlet,  i.  4,  9-1  a  '  Epp.  Ho^Eh,  p.  451,  as  note. 

^  Holinshed,  The  Description  of  England,  chap,  vi.,  in  Chronicles,  ed. 
Hooker,  1586,  vol,  i.  p.  17a 
^  Ward's  Diary,  u.s. 


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284    ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  SHAKESPEARE 

aloes,  or  artichoke-leaves,^  and  it  is  well  known  that  ivy 
was  a  common  substitute  when  hops  were  prohibited 
by  Henry  VIII.  According  to  Holinshed  it  was  only 
the  nobility  that  drank  beer  of  *'two  years'  tunning"  ; 
it  was  often  brewed  in  the  spring,  and  was  then  known 
as  March-beer;  and  in  an  ordinary  household  it  was 
usually  about  a  month  old,  '*ech  one  coveting  to  have 
the  same  stale  as  he  may,  so  that  it  be  not  sowre."* 
It  was  probably  from  his  Chronicle  that  Shakespeare 
took  the  phrase  ^*pink  eyne"  in  the  song  which  the 
boy  sang  on  Pompey's  galley.^  Some  have  thought 
that  he  referred  to  colour,  since  **pink"  in  the  old 
Dictionaries  is  explained  as  ''a  kind  of  yellow  used  in 
painting."  The  verb  **to  pink"  signified  winking, 
and  people  "with  eyes  like  pigs"  were  often  called 
pink-eyed.^  Pliny  had  said  that  a  man  with  both 
eyes  very  small  would  be  nicknamed  Ocella,  and  in 
Holland's  version  this  appears  as  "Also  them  that 
were  pinke-eied  and  had  verie  small  eies,  they  tearmed 
OcellcB.^^^  Holinshed,  however,  shows  us  that  Bacchus 
was  accused  in  the  song  of  a  tipsy  blinking  ;  for  in  his 
sketch  of  the  pot-knights  he  makes  them  afraid  to  stir 
from  the  alehouse-bench,  where  they  sit  half-asleep, 
"still  pinking  with  their  narrow  eyes,"  until  the  fume 
of  their  adversary  passes  away.®  We  should  add  a 
few  words  about  wine.  Shakespeare  barely  refers  to 
claret  and  other  "small  red  wines" ;  it  is  sufficient  to 
notice  that  the  Scotch  had  the  preference  and  pick  of 
the  market  at  Bordeaux,^  and  that  Portugal  as  yet  pro- 
duced nothing  worth  bringing  to  England.®    The  best 

^  Sir  Hugh  Piatt,  The  Jewell  House  of  Art  and  Nature^  1594,  pp.  15-19) 
under  beading  *'  How  to  brew  good  and  wholsom  Beere  without  anie 
Hoppes  at  all." 

*  Holinshed,  op.  city  i.  p.  167.         '  Antony  and  Cleopatra^  ii.  7,  121. 

*  See  instances  in  Nares'  Glossary ^  s.v, 

*  Pliny,  Nat,  Hist,,  tr.  Holland,  1601,  bk.  xi.  ch.  37.  (vol.  i.  p.  335  E.) 

*  Holinshed,  op,  city  i.  17a  ^  Epp,  Ho-'ELy  p.  456,  as  note. 
»/</.,  p.  455. 


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FOREIGN   WINES  285 

Hocky  said  Howell,  came  from  Bacharach,  or  **  Bach- 
rag"  as  he  called  it,^  and  the  worst  never  saw  the 
Rhine  at  all,  but  was  '^ stummed  up"  out  of  a  hard 
green  wine  from  Rochelle.*  The  Rhenish  grape  was 
**the  father  of  Canary."  From  Bacharach  came  the 
first  stock  of  vines  for  the  island  of  Grand  Canary. 
**I  think  there's  more  Canary  brought  into  England 
than  to  all  the  World  besides.  I  think  also  there  is  a 
hundred  times  more  drunk  under  the  name  of  Canary 
Wine  than  is  brought  in ;  for  Sherries  and  Malagas 
well  mingled  pass  for  Canaries  in  most  Taverns,  more 
often  than  Canary  itself."^  It  was  even  said  that  with 
a  spoonful  of  Spirit  of  Clary,  that  could  be  bought  of 
any  apothecary,  a  bottle  of  cider  might  be  made  to 
resemble  Canary  so  nearly  that  an  experienced  palate 
could  not  tell  the  difference.  The  best  account  of 
Sack  is  to  be  found  in  Dr.  Venner's  Via  Recta  ad  Vitam 
longam^  of  which  editions  were  issued  in  1638  and 
1650.*  "  Some  affect,"  he  says,  **to  drink  with  sugar, 
and  some  without,  as  is  best  pleasing  to  their  palates." 
On  this  matter,  he  concluded,  everyone  must  be  his 
own  director,  according  to  his  state  of  health;  **but 
what  I  have  spoken  of  mixing  Sugar  with  Sack,  must 
be  understood  of  Sherrie  Sack,  for  to  mix  Sugar  with 
other  wines,  that  in  a  common  appellation  are  called 
Sack,  and  are  sweeter  in  taste,  makes  it  unpleasant  to 
the  palat."  Malaga  Sack,  he  said,  was  neither  pleasant 
nor  wholesome,  being  nauseous  and  fulsomely  sweet. 
^'Canarie-wine  ...  is  also  termed  a  Sack  ...  it  is 
not  so  white  in  colour  as  Sherrie  Sack,  nor  so  thinne 
in  substance."^    The  truest  kind  of  Sack  was  exported 

1  ItL,  p.  457. 

*  Jd,y  p.  456 :  '*  This  is  called  stooming  of  Wines."  Stum = strong  new 
wine.     See  Nares,  s.v.  '  /</.,  pp.  457-8. 

^  The  earliest  edition  belongs  to  1620.  The  edition  of  1650  contains 
many  additions.  Both  the  1638  and  1650  volumes  contain,  as  an 
appendix,  The  Bathes  of  Bathe  and  the  treatise  on  tobacco-taking. 

•  Venner,  «,*.,  ed.  1650,  pp.  33-4. 


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286    ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  SHAKESPEARE 

from  Santa  Cruz  in  the  isle  of  Palma ;  it  was  a  thin, 
dry  wine  of  a  very  pale  colour.  This  was  Ben  Jonson's 
favourite,  according  to  a  saying  ascribed  to  him : 
'^  I  laid  the  plot  of  my  Volpone,  and  wrote  most  of  it, 
after  a  present  of  ten  dozen  of  Palm  Sack  from  my 
very  good  Lord."^  We  get  an  idea  about  these  wines 
from  Venner's  use  of  sweet  Muscadel  as  a  standard. 
Muscadel  was,  in  his  opinion,  exactly  equal  to  sweet 
Malmsey  or  Malvaria ;  and  Bastard  was  somewhat  like 
Muscadel,  ''and  may  also  instead  thereof  be  used." ^  We 
should  remember,  however,  that  the  sugared  Sherries, 
and  all  the  quarts  and  gallons  of  Sack  which  went  to 
Falstaffs  reckonings  were  in  reality  not  stronger  than 
negus.  Howell  says  of  these  white  wines  in  general, 
that  ''when  Sacks  and  Canaries  were  brought  in  first 
among  us,  they  were  us'd  to  be  drank  in  Aqua  vtUe 
measures,"  and  were  regarded  as  liqueurs  for  old 
people  and  invalids ;  "  but  now  they  go  down  every 
one's  throat,  both  young  and  old,  like  milk."' 


Ill 

HOWELL  AT  VENICE — ILLUSTRATIONS   OF   "THE  TEMPEST," 
"OTHELLO,"   ETC, 

We  find  several  passages  which  throw  some  light 
upon  allusions  in  The  Tempest  to  King  Alonso  "upon 
the  Mediterranean  flote,  bound  sadly  home  for  Naples,"  ^ 
and  the  foul  witch,  Sycorax,  who  for  "sorceries  terrible" 
was  banished  from  Argier:  "for  one  thing  she  did, 
they  would  not  take   her  life."^     "I   know,"  writes 

^  Aubrey,  Brief  Lives ^  ii.  12,  says :  '*  Canarie  was  his  beloved  liquour." 

■  Venner,  u,s» 

>  Epp.  Ho'El,  p.  458,  as  note.  His  phrase  is:  ** 'Twas  held  fit  only 
for  those  to  drink  of  them  who  were  us'd  to  carry  their  legs  in  their 
hands,  their  eyes  upon  their  noses,  and  an  Almanack  in  their  bones. " 

*  Tempest,  i.  2,  234-5.  *  Md,,  263-7. 


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HOWfiLL  AT  ALGIERS  287 

Howell,  **the  Lightness  and  'Nimhlenessoi  Algier ships; 
when  I  liv'd  lately  in  Altcant  and  other  places  upon 
the  Mediterranean^  we  should  every  Week  hear  some 
of  them  chas'd,  but  very  seldom  taken ;  for  a  great 
Ship  following  one  of  them,  may  be  said  to  be  as  a 
Mastiff  Dog  running  after  a  Hare."^  When  the  light 
pirate-ship  was  in  chase  of  a  great  merchant-man 
another  figure  was  required  ;  and  in  Sandys'  Travels 
we  accordingly  read  of  *'a  little  frigot"  venturing  **on 
an  Argosie/'  which  ran  ashore  before  the  pursuer,  as  if 
a  whale  should  fly  from  a  dolphin.^  Howell  is  writing 
to  his  friend,  Captain  Thomas  Porter,  upon  his  return 
from  an  attempt  upon  the  galleys  in  Algiers  Roads, 
which  had  failed  through  the  spells  of  the  Demon  and 
his  Hadjis  and  Marabouts ;  '^  it  was  one  of  the  bravest 
Enterprizes,  and  had  prov'd  such  a  glorious  Exploit 
that  no  Story  could  have  paralleled ;  but  it  seems  their 
Hoggiesy  Magicians^  and  Maribots  were  tampering 
with  the  ill  Spirits  of  the  Air  all  the  while,  which 
brought  down  such  a  still  Cataract  of  Rain-waters 
suddenly  upon  you,  to  hinder  the  working  of  your 
Fire-works ;  such  a  Disaster  the  Story  tells  us,  befell 
Charles  the  Emperor,  but  far  worse  than  yours,  for  he 
lost  Ships  and  multitudes  of  Men,  who  were  made 
Slaves,  but  you  came  off  with  loss  of  eight  Men  only, 
and  Algier  is  anotherghess  thing  now  than  she  was 
then,  being  I  believe  an  hundred  degrees  stronger  by 
Land  and  Sea*"^ 

When  Howell  was  quite  a  young  man,  he  was  sent  to 
Venice  to  learn  the  secrets  of  glass-making.  William 
Herbert,  Earl  of  Pembroke,  in  partnership  with  Sir 
Robert  Mansell  and  a  few  others,  had  obtained  a 
monopoly  for  making  glass  with  pit-coal  at  Swansea, 
'*to  save  those  huge  Proportions  of  Wood  which  were 

1  Epp,  Ho-El,  p.  no  (i.,  §2,  let  ii  :  St  Osith,  Dec  1622). 
'  Sandys'  Relation  of  a  Jouimey^  etc.,  1615,  p.  2. 
'  Epp.  Ho-EL,  as  note  i. 


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288    ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  SHAKESPEARE 

consumed  formerly  in  the  Glass  Furnaces :  And  this 
Business,"  he  continues,  '^  being  of  that  nature,  that 
the  Workmen  are  to  had  from  Italy^  and  the  chief 
Materials  from  Spain^  France^  and  other  foreign 
Countries ;  there  is  need  of  an  Agent  abroad  for  this 
Use."  ^  At  Alicante,  on  his  way  to  Venice,  he  embarked 
with  a  '^  lusty  Dutchman  "  who  despised  the  Aigerines. 
There  had  been  a  sad  misfortune  with  the  pirates  a 
short  time  before :  ^'had  I  come  time  enough  to  have 
taken  the  Opportunity,  I  might  have  been  made  either 
Food  for  Haddocks,  or  turn'd  to  Cinders,  or  have 
been  by  this  time  a  Slave  in  the  Bannier  at  Algier^ 
or  tugging  at  a  Oar."  They  arrived  quite  safely  at 
Malamocco,  but  were  nearly  forty  days  at  sea.  '*  We 
passed  by  Majorca  and  Minorca  ...  by  some  Ports 
of  Barbatyj  by  Sardinia,  Corsica,  and  all  the  Islands 
of  the  Mediterranean  Sea.  We  were  at  the  Mouth 
of  Tyber,  and  thence  fetch'd  our  Course  for  Sicily ;  we 
pass'd  by  those  sulphureous  fiery  Islands,  Mongibel  and 
StrombolOy  and  about  the  Dawn  of  the  Day  we  shot 
thro*  Scylla  and  Chatybdis,  and  so  into  the  Phare  of 
Messina;  thence  we  touched  upon  some  of  the  Greek 
Islands,  and  so  came  to  our  first  intended  Course,  into 
the  Venetian  Gulph,  and  are  now  here  at  Malamocco.^^^ 
This  is  like  the  voyage  from  Naples  to  Tunis,  where 
Queen  Claribel  dwelt  ten  leagues  beyond  man's  life : — 

<'  She  that  from  Naples 
Can  have  no  note,  unless  the  sun  were  post — 
The  man  i'  th'  moon's  too  slow — till  new-born  chins 
Be  rough  and  razorable."* 

"Now,"  says  our  traveller,  *'we  are  in  the  Adrian 
Sea,  in  the  Mouth  whereof  Venice  stands,  like  a  gold 
Ring  in  a  Bear's  Muzzle."*     In  considering  Shake- 

^  Id, fp,  20  (i.  §  I,  let.  2  :  Broad  Streety  Londtm^  i  March  161 8). 
'  /rf.,  p.  62  (i.  §  I,  let.  26 :  Malamocco^  30  April  1621). 
'  Tempest y  ii.  i,  247-5a 

*  Epp,  Ho'ELy  p.  63  (i.  { I,  let.  27  :  ''From  on  Shipboard  before  Venice," 
5  Mav  1621). 


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HOWELL  AT  VENICE  289 

speare's  references  to  Venice,  it  must  always  be  remem- 
bered that  the  republic  was  the  mistress  of  a  vast 
dominion.  Mr.  Rawdon  Brown  has  some  apposite 
remarks  on  this  point.  We  find  an  account  of  a  series 
of  letters  written  from  London  by  the  Venetian  Am- 
bassadors in  Shakespeare's  time  in  his  Catalogue  of 
Manuscripts  preserved  among  the  Venetian  State 
Papers.  In  one  of  the  letters,  dated  the  i8th  of 
February,  1610,  Arabella  Stuart  is  mentioned  as  com- 
plaining that  certain  comict  puilici  intended  to  bring 
her  into  a  play.  Mr.  Rawdon  Brown  takes  these  for 
the  King's  players,  "who,  by  turning  Arabella  into 
ridicule,  expected  to  please  their  chief  patron."  Lady 
Braybrooke,  he  adds,  spoke  of  "Venetian  Players" 
acting  in  London  in  1608,  and  also  of  Lord  Suffolk's 
players  in  1610.  "I  wonder  whether  either  of  these 
two  companies  had  any  hand  in  bringing  Arabella 
Stuart  on  the  stage,  and  I  should  also  like  to  know 
whether  the  fact  of  there  having  been  *  Venice  Players ' 
in  England  in  Shakespeare's  time  had  been  noted  by 
his  commentators,  when  alluding  to  the  Venetian  origin 
of  so  many  of  his  plays;  for  we  must  consider  as 
Venetian  not  merely  scenes  actually  laid  in  Venice,  but 
also  all  such  as  relate  to  the  Signory's  dependencies, 
whether  on  the  mainland  as  at  Padua  and  Verona,  or 
in  Cyprus,  or  in  Dalmatia."  With  reference  to  this 
point  we  should  consult  Howell's  letter  to  Sir  James 
Crofts  and  the  Survey  of  the  Signorie  of  Venice^ 
which  he  published  as  a  separate  work  in  165 1.  "  Tho' 
this  City  be  thus  hem'd  in  with  the  Sea^  yet  she  spreads 
her  Wings  far  and  wide  upon  the  Shore ;  she  hath  in 
Lcmbardy  six  considerable  Towns,  Paduaj  Verona^ 
Vtcenzuj  BresciUj  Crema^  and  Bergamo:  she  hath  in 
the  Marquisaty  Hassan  and  Castelfranco ;  she  hath 
all  Friuli  and  Istria;  she  commands  the  Shores  of 
Dalmatia  and  Sclavonia;  she  keeps  under  the  Power 
of  St.  Mark  the  Islands  of  Corfu  (anciently  Corcyra\ 


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290    ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  SHAKESPEARE 

CephaUmiay  Zant^  Cerigo^  Lvcerigo^  and  Candy J^^  In 
1488  she  had  received  the  kingdom  of  Cyprus  from 
"Kate  the  Queen," ^  otherwise  "La  Regina  Caterina 
Cornaro  Lusignana/'  and  had  only  lost  it  in  1571  after 
a  desperate  struggle  with  the  "  Ottomites."  "  It  was 
quite  rent  from  her  by  the  Turk:  which  made  that 
high-spirited  Bassa^  being  taken  Prisoner  at  the  Battle 
of  LepantOy  where  the  Grand  Signior  lost  above  200 
Gallies,  to  say,  That  that  Defeat  to  his  great  Master  was 
but  like  the  shaving  of  his  Beard^  or  the  paring  of  his 
Nails;  but  the  taking  of  Cyprus  was  like  the  cutting  off 
of  a  Limb,  which  will  never  grow  again.  This  mighty 
Potentate  being  so  near  a  Neighbour  to  her,  she  is 
forced  to  comply  with  him,  and  give  him  an  annual 
Present  in  Gold."* 

We  see  the  misfortune  coming,  even  when  Othello 
brings  Cyprus  comfort  and  assistance.  "  The  desperate 
tempest  hath  so  bang'd  the  Turks,  that  their  design- 
ment  halts " ;  ^  but  still  the  Turk  with  a  most  mighty 
preparation  makes  for  Cyprus.  All  that  the  Venetians 
can  do  is  to  bear  a  brave  heart,  and  so  steal  something 
from  the  thief: 

**  So  let  the  Turk  of  Cyprus  us  beguile  ; 
We  lose  it  not,  so  long  as  we  can  smile. 
He  bears  the  sentence  well  that  nothing  bears 
But  the  free  comfort  which  from  thence  he  hears, 
But  he  bears  both  the  sentence  and  the  sorrow 
That,  to  pay  grief,  must  of  poor  patience  borrow."* 

Shakespeare  evidently  knew  as  much  about  Venice 
as  many  a  traveller  who  had  **  swam  in  a  gondola."  To 
take  another  point  from  Othello,  we  may  note  that  the 
ship  in  which  Cassio  sailed  to  Cyprus  is  described  as  "a 
Veronesa";«and  if  one  looks  at  the  list  of  ships  that 

^  £pp,  Ho'EL,  p.  77  (i.  §  I,  let  35 :   Ven,,  i  Aug,  1621). 

*  Sec  R.  Browning:,  Pippa  Passes. 

*  £pp.  Ho-BL,  U.S.  4  otkelJo,  iu  i,  21-2. 

*  M,  I  3,  210-15.  •  Id,,  \l  I,  26. 


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VENICE  291 

took  part  in  the  battle  of  Lepanto,  it  will  be  seen  at 
once  that  the  inland  towns  were  credited  with  the  ships 
built  at  their  expense,  such  as  the  **  Royalty  "  of  Padua, 
the  "Alessandrica" of  Bergamo,  and  the  ** Tower"  and 
'^ Sea-man"  of  Vicenza.  It  is  in  one  of  the  earliest 
plays  that  the  proverb  is  quoted  which  said  that  ^^the 
eye  is  the  best  judge  of  Venice,"  or  "Who  sees  not 
Venice,  loves  her  not."  Howell  adds  the  line  which 
the  young  "Italianate  signors"  were  apt  to  leave  out: — 

**  Venetia,  Venetia,  chi  turn  te  vede  non  te  Pregia, 
Ma  chi  f  ha  troppo  veduto  te  Dtspreggia  " — 

**  Venice,  Venice,  none  Thee  unseeti  can  prise  ; 
Who  hath  seen  [thee]  too  much  will  Thee  despise, " 

Such  was  the  "common  Saying  that  is  used  of  this 
dainty  City  of  Venice.^^^  Howell  takes  the  liberty 
pf  borrowing  the  celebrated  metaphors  of  the  "pool" 
and  the  "girdle"  in  Cymbeline.  "You  shall  find 
us,"  laughed  Prince  Cloten,  "in  our  salt-water  girdle: 
if  you  beat  us  out  of  it,  it  is  yours  " ;  *  and  Imogen 
argues  in  a  classical  phrase  that  Britain  is  outside  the 
world,  "in  a  great  pool  a  swan's  nest."*  Venice,  said 
Howell,  may  be  said  to  be  walled  with  water:  "it  is 
the  water,  wherein  she  lies  like  a  swan's  nest,  that  doth 
both  fence  and  feed  her."* 

He  says  of  the  Venetian  ladies  that  they  wore  bright 
colours  and  went  unveiled.  "  They  are  low  and  of  small 
statures  for  the  most  part,  which  makes  them  to  raise 
their  bodies  upon  high  shooes  called  Chapins."^    We 

^  Epp,  Ho^EL^  p.  79  (i.  { I,  let  36:  VeiUy  12  Aug.  1621).  Cf.  Lovers 
Labou?s  Losty  iv.  2,  99-ioa 

^  Cytnbeliney  iii.  i,  80-2.  '  Id.,  iii.  4,  142. 

*  Sec  also  Howell's  Instructions  for  Forraine  Travell,  1642,  sect  viii. : 
"  A  rich  magnificent  City  seated  in  the  very  jaws  of  Neptune.** 

•  Survey  of  ths  Signarie  of  Venice,  p.  39.  See  Nares*  Glossary,  s.v. 
Chioppinb,  where  numerous  references  to  this  Venetian  custom  are 
brought  together.  <*  The  derivation  is  Spanish,  {chapin).'*  New  English 
Dictionary,  s.v.  Chopine,  Chopin,  says,  "  Identical  with  obs.  F.  chapins, 
chappins  .  .  .  mod.  Sp.  chapin  .  .  Portuguese  chapim.  The  Eng.  writers 
c,  1600  persistenUy  treated  the  word  as  Italian." 


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292     ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  SHAKESPEARE 

remember  the  boy  who  played  the  female  characters 
at  Elsinore :  ''What,  my  young  lady  and  mistress! 
By'r  lady,  your  ladyship  is  nearer  to  heaven  than  when 
I  saw  you  last,  by  the  altitude  of  a  chopine."^  The 
Venetian  Senate  often  endeavoured  to  put  down  these 
pattens  and  wooden  shoes,  '*  but  all  women,"  said  the 
traveller,  "are  so  passionately  delighted  with  this  kind 
of  state  that  no  Law  can  wean  them  from  it."*  He 
tells  a  story  of  a  great  lady  who  found  a  new  use  for 
the  chopine.  ''Not  long  before  her  death,  the  late 
Queen  of  Spain  took  off  one  of  her  Chapines,  and 
clowted  Olivares  about  the  noddle  with  it  •  •  •  telling 
him,  that  he  should  know,  she  was  Sister  to  a  King 
of  France  J  as  well  as  Wife  to  a  King  of  Spain.^^^  The 
commoner  kind  of  people  used  to  walk  shrouded  in 
black  veils,  whereas  in  Rome  or  Naples  all  faces  wore 
a  "Celestial  hue,"  according  to  Howell's  valentine  on 
Lady  Robinson.^  This  shows  incidentally  how  ac- 
curately the  reproach  of  Imogen  was  directed  against 
the  Roman  Bettina  or  Saltarella,  whom  Posthumus  was 
supposed  to  have  admired:  "Some  jay  of  Italy,"  she 
cries,  "whose  mother  was  her  painting! " ^  The  phrase 
itself  seems  borrowed  from  Roger  Ascham's  Toxophilus^ 
in  the  passage  where  he  inveighs  against  his  country- 
men as  being  more  Turkish  than  the  Turks:  "Our 
unfaithful  sinful  living,  which  is  the  Turk's  mother, 
and  hath  brought  him  up  hitherto,  must  needs  turn 
God  from  us,  because  sin  and  He  hath  no  fellowship 
together.  If  we  banished  ill-living  out  of  Christen- 
dom, I  am  sure  the  Turk  should  not  only,  not  overcome 
us,  but  scarce  have  a  hole  to  run  into,  in  his  own 
country."* 

*  HamUty  ii.  2,  444-7.  *  Howell,  Survey y  u,s. 

«  Effp,  Ho-Ely  p.  437  (ii.  let.  43 :  Fleet,  i  Dec,  1643). 
^  Id,y  p.  271  (i.  §  5,  between  lett  21  and  22). 

*  Cymbeline,  iii.  4,  51-2.        '  Ascham,  Toxophi  tis,  ed.  Arber,  p.  81. 


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SYRIAN  WOLVES  293 


IV 

ANECDOTES    AND    LEGENDS    IN    HOWELL's    LETTERS— IRISH 
FOLK-LORE — ^JOAN   OF   ARC 

Howell  has  also  preserved  an  anecdote  which  may 
throw  light  on  a  passage  in  ^^  You  Like  It.  The 
comedy  is  based  upon  Lodge's  Rosalynde  as  a  ground- 
work, but  the  witty  scene  of  the  chorus  of  lovers  is 
Shakespeare's  own : — 

'*  Phe.  Good  shepherd^  tell  this  youth  what  'tis  to  love. 
SU.    It  is  to  be  all  made  of  sighs  and  tears  ; 

And  so  am  I  for  Phebe  : 
Phe.  And  I  for  Ganymede  : 
Orl.   And  I  for  Rosalind  :  " 

and  so  on  again  and  again.  But  what  says  Rosalind  ? 
**Pray  you,  no  more  of  this;  'tis  like  the  howling 
of  Irish  wolves  against  the  moon."  ^  His  hearers  would 
expect  **  Syrian,"  not  **  Irish,"  wolves — a  common- 
place among  writers  of  the  day.  When  Samela  turned 
out  to  be  a  king's  daughter,  poor  Menaphon  returned 
to  his  rustic  loves.  ^^  Seeing  his  passions  were  too 
aspiring,  and  that  with  the  Syrian  wolves  he  barked 
against  the  Moon,  he  left  such  lettuce  as  were  too  fine 
for  his  lips."^  And  so  in  Lodge's  novel,  where  Gany- 
mede sits  under  the  pomegranate  bough  and  condoles 
wkh  the  shepherd  :  'M  tell  thee,  Montanus,  in  courting 
Phoebe,  thou  barkest  with  the  wolves  of  Syria  against 
the  moon,  and  rovest  at  such  a  mark  with  thy  thoughts, 
as  is  beyond  the  pitch  of  the  bow."*  The  lovers  in 
the  comedy  were  all  aiming  too  high  and  crying  for  the 

1  As  You  Like  It,  v.  2. 

*  Greene,  Menaphon,  ed.  Arber,  p.  92.  Cf.  id.,  p.  53 ;  there  Melicertus 
says  to  Samela :  '*  Therefore  I  fear  with  the  Syrian  wolves  to  bark  against 
the  moon." 

'  Lodge,  Rosalynde,  ed.  H.  Morley,  1893,  p.  163. 


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294    ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  SHAKESPEARE 

moon  ;  but  why  like  Irish  wolves  ?  The  answer  is  that 
the  Irish,  like  ojther  northern  nations,  had  been  sus- 
pected of  changing  shapes  with  wolves  when  they 
pleased,  or  at  a  certain  time  of  yean  We  should  add 
that  some  of  the  peasantry  were  accused  of  worshipping 
the  moon. 

'•In  Ireland^'  said  Howell,  "the  Kerns  of  the 
mountains,  with  some  of  the  Scotch  Isles,  use  a  fashion 
of  adoring  the  new  Moon  to  this  very  day,  praying 
she  would  leave  them  in  as  good  Health  as  she  found 
them."^  Camden  had  written  a  strange  account  of 
these  mountaineers,  declaring  that  they  took  "unto 
them  Wolves  to  bee  their  Godsibs :  whom  they  tearme 
Chart  Christy  praying  for  them  and  wishing  them 
well."  2  Spenser  traced  elaborately  the  legendary  con- 
nection between  the  native  Irish  and  the  Sc3rthians  as 
described  by  Herodotus.  "The  Scythians  said,  that 
they  were  once  every  year  turned  into  wolves,  and 
so  it  is  written  of  the  Irish :  though  Mr  Camden  in 
a  better  sense  doth  suppose  it  was  a  disease,  called 
Lycanthropia,  so  named  of  the  wolf.  And  yet  some 
of  the  Irish  do  use  to  make  the  wolf  their  gossip."* 
Howell  tells  a  story  of  "two  huge  Wolves"  that  stared 
at  him  while  he  was  at  luncheon  under  a  tree  in  Biscay, 
but  had  the  good  manners  to  go  away.  "It  put  me 
in  mind  of  a  pleasant  Tale  I  heard  Sir  Tho.  Fairfax 
relate  of  a  Soldier  in  Ireland.^^  The  soldier  being  tired 
sat  down  under  a  tree  to  eat :  "  but  on  a  sudden  he 
was  surpriz'd  with  two  or  three  Wolves,  who  coming 
towards  him,  he  threw  them  scraps  of  bread  and  cheese, 
till  all  was  gone ;  then  the  Wolves  making  a  nearer  Ap- 
proach to  him,  he  knew  not  what  shift  to  make,  but  by 


»  Epp,  Ho-El.,  pp.  397-8  (ii.  let  ii :   Westm,,  25  Aug.  1635). 

^  Camden,,  5A)/»a,  Hibemia,  etc.,  tr.  Holland,'  1610,  p.  146.  Camden 
was  copying  from  L  Good :  '*  A  Priest  .  •  .  who  about  the  yeere  of  our 
Lord  1566  taught  the  Schoole  at  Limirick" 

*  View  0/  present  state  of  Ireland^  i596>  ^i^  Works,  ed.  Morris,  p.  654. 


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IRISH  TRADITIONS  295 

taking  a  pair  of  Bag-pipes  which  he  had,  and  as  soon 
as  he  began  to  play  upon  them  the  Wolves  ran  all 
away  as  if  they  had  been  scar'd  out  of  their  wits." 
But  the  soldier  only  said,  ^'If  I  had  known  you  had 
lov'd  Musick  so  well,  you  should  have  had  it  before 
dinner,"^ 

When  As  You  Like  It  came  out  in  the  year  1599,* 
any  topical  allusion  to  Ireland  was  sure  of  success. 
The  arch-rebel,  Hugh  O'Neill,  was  leading  a  crusade 
against  the  English ;  it  was  popularly  believed  that 
the  Pope  had  sent  him  a  plume  of  Phoenix  feathers  ; 
and  he  had  been  so  far  successful  that  he  had  crushed 
Bagenal  at  the  Blackwater,  and  was  maintaining  a 
bold  front  against  the  wavering  forces  of  Essex.  It  is 
not  surprising  therefore  that  the  ichneumon  of  Egypt, 
or  ^'Indian  Rat,"  should  be  transferred  to  Ireland 
with  the  Syrian  wolves.  For  what  says  Rosalind  when 
she  found  the  poem  on  the  palm-tree?  **I  was  never 
so  be-rhymed  since  P5rthagoras'  time,  that  I  was  an 
Irish  rat,  which  I  can  hardly  remember."*  There  is  a 
reference,  of  course,  to  the  idea  that  rats  had  been  ex- 
pelled for  many  ages  from  the  Isle  of  Saints.  The 
historian,  Gerald  de  Barry,  had  told  the  world  how  St. 
Yvor  with  bell,  book,  and  candle  had  driven  away  all 
the  rats  in  the  Bishopric  of  Ferns,  and  the  very  words 
used  in  such  exorcisms  were  well  known.  The  rats, 
we  learn,  **were  so  entirely  expelled  by  the  curse  of 
St.  Yvorus,  the  bishop,  whose  books  they  had  probably 
gnawed,  that  none  were  afterwards  bred  there,  or  could 
exist  if  they  were  introduced."*  Shakespeare,  we  may 
add,  seems  to  have  been  fond  of  a  quip  about  Pytha- 
goras ;  we  have  the  case  of  the  crocodile's  transmigra- 

*  Epp.  Ho-El.y  p.  211  (i.  §  3,  let.  39 :  "  from  Bilboa,"  6  Sept,  1624). 

'  1599,  at  all  events,  is  the  date  commonly  agreed  upon  ;  the  evidence 
is  indirect.     See  A.  W.  Ward,  Eng,  Dram.  LiL,  ii.  128-9. 
'  As  You  Like  It,  iiL,  2,  186-8. 

*  Gir.  Camb.,  Top<^aphia  Hibemicay  Dist  ii.  Cap,  xxxii.  (tr.  Forester, 
p.  96).     See  id,y  cap,  xix.  for  "  Irish  wolves." 


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296    ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  SHAKESPEARE 

tion,^  and  the  argument  about  Malvolio's  grandmother 
in  the  shape  of  a  woodcock.^  There  is  no  reason, 
however,  to  suppose  that  he  had  studied  the  Italian 
philosophy,  or  Lucian's  burlesque  in  the  dialogue 
between  the  Cock  and  the  Cobbler.  He  probably 
went  no  further  than  to  Holinshed's  Chronicle^  where 
he  could  learn  the  dogma  that  an  unworthy  soul  might 
be  **shut  up  in  the  bodie  of  a  slave,  begger,  cocke, 
owle,  dog,  ape,  horsse,  asse,  worme  or  monster,  there 
to  remaine  as  in  a  place  of  purgation  and  punish- 
ment,"* as  indeed  it  was  once  said  of  the  Trojan  War : 
*^How  should  Homer  know  anything  about  it,  when 
he  was  himself  at  that  very  time  a  camel  in  Bactria?" 

We  shall  take  leave  of  James  Howell  for  the  present 
after  one  more  extract,  which  may  serve  to  show  how 
little  even  cultivated  people  knew  or  cared  in  his  time 
about  writing  with  historical  accuracy.  He  writes  to  Sir 
John  North  from  the  fair  town  of  Orleans,  where  he 
had  seen  a  civil  and  military  procession  in  honour  of 
**La  pauvre  Pucelle":  **Jehanne  la  bonne  Lorraine, 
qu'Anglois  bruslerent  k  Rouen."*  She  was  praised 
by  the  poets  of  her  time  as  being  very  sweet  and 
gracious:  ''Tr^s-douce,  aimable,  mouton  sans  orgeuil," 
is  her  character  from  Martial  de  Paris.  She  won  at 
Patay  in  1429  and  was  executed  two  years  later;  yet 
Shakespeare  allows  her  to  beat  Talbot  at  Chatillon  in 
^453>  in  the  shape  of  a  ranting  Fury,  perhaps  imagined 
as  restored  to  some  diabolic  or  magical  kind  of  life.^ 
Howell's  words  show  how  little  was  known  about  the 
matter.  ''Her  Statue  stands  upon  the  Bridge,  and 
her  Clothes  are  preserved  to  this  day,  which  a  young 
Man  wore  in  the  Procession  ;  which  makes  me  think 

*  Antony  and  Cleopatra^  ii.  7,  46-51. 
^  Twelfth  Night,  iv.  2,  54-65. 
Holinshed,  T?ie  Description  of  Britaine,  chap,   ix-,  in  Chronicles, 
*'•*.,  i.  2a  *  Villon,  Ballade  des  Dames  du  Temps jadis, 

"  I  Henry  VI, ,  iv.  7. 


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HOWELL  ON  JOAN  OF  ARC  297 

that  her  Story,  tho'  it  sound  like  a  Romance^  is  very 
true."  The  English  had  driven  Charles  VIL  to 
Bourges  in  Berry,  **  Which  made  him  to  be  call'd,  for 
the  time.  King  of  Berry.''  **  There  came  to  his  Army 
a  Shepherdess,  one  Anne  de  Argue y  who  with  a  con- 
fident look  and  language  told  the  King,  that  she  was 
design'd  by  Heaven  to  beat  the  English^  and  drive 
them  out  of  France.  .  .  .  The  Siege  was  rais'd  from 
before  Orleans^  and  the  English  were  pursu'd  to  Parisy 
and  forced  to  quit  that,  and  driven  to  Normandy  :  She 
us'd  to  go  on  with  marvellous  courage  and  resolution, 
and  her  word  was  Hara  ha.''^ 

*  Epp.  Ho-ELy  p.  140  (i.  §  2,  let  23 :  Orleans,  3  Mar,  1622). 


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11.     WARD'S   DIARY 
I 

THE  REV.   JOHN   WARD — HIS   MEDICAL  TRAINING HIS    REMARKS 

ON  CLERGY  AND  THE  MEDICAL  PROFESSION 

THE  Rev.  John  Ward  came  to  Stratford  in  1662, 
and  resided  there  until  his  death  in   168 1.     He 
was  always  a  literary  man  ;  but  he  also  took  an  active 
part  in  local  afifairs,  not  only  as  vicar,  but  also  as  a 
practising  physician.     Seventeen  of  his  commoflplace 
books  came  eventually  into  the  possession  of  Dr.  James 
Sims,  an  eminent  writer  upon  medical  subjects,  who 
graduated  at  Leyden  in  1764,  and  died  in  1820.     His 
library,  including  the  commonplace  books  in  question, 
became  the  property  of  the  Medical  Society  of  London  ; 
and  an  important  volume  of  extracts  was  issued  in  1839 
by  Dr.  Charles  Severn,  then  Registrar  to  the  Society, 
under  the  title  of  the  Diary  of  the  Rev.  John  IVardf 
A.M.y    Vicar  of  Stratford-upoti'-Avon^  extending  from 
1648  to  16^9.     Dr.  Severn  states  in  his  preface  that  on 
perusing  the  first  volume,  the  series  being  in  no  regular 
order  of  date,  he  found  that  it  was  begun  in  the  early 
part  of  1661  and  was  completed  ^'at  Mr.  Brooks  his 
house,  Stratford-upon-Avon,  April  25,  1663."     Most  of 
the  entries  related  to  theological  and  medical  matters ; 
but  he  hoped  that  entries  might  be  found  in  the  other 
volumes  relating,  perhaps,  to  Shakespeare  himself,  or 
at  least  to  his  family  and  friends.    He  felt  that  the  great 
precision  of  Ward's  writing,  and  the  generous  way 
in  which  opponents  were  treated  throughout  the  Diary ^ 
showed  that  dependence  might  justly  be  placed  on  a 

298 


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JOHN  WARD  299 

person  of  so  much  learnings  dbservatioiii  and  candour. 
"  In  this  .  .  .  search,"  he  said,  *^  I  was  fortunately  not 
entirely  disappointed ;  and  though  the  notices  of 
Shakespeare  made  by  Mn  Ward  are,  alas  I  very  few 
and  brief,  as  they  supply  information  at  once  novel, 
interesting,  and  of  strict  authenticity,  they  are  of  great 
value/' 1 

Mr.  Ward  was  the  son  of  a  Northamptonshire  land- 
owner, who  fought  as  a  lieutenant  in  Appleyard's  Regi- 
ment, and  was  imprisoned  by  the  Republicans  after 
Naseby  fight.  John  Ward  was  born  in  1629,  and  took 
his  Bachelor's  degree  at  Oxford  at  the  age  of  nine- 
teen, about  the  time  when  his  series  of  Table-books 
begins.  He  remained  at  the  University  until  he 
proceeded  to  the  degree  of  M.A.,  in  1652.  He 
studied  divinity  at  the  Bodleian,  and  made  some 
progress  in  the  Oriental  languages,  as  well  as  in 
Anglo-Saxon  literature,  which  was  beginning  to  be 
a  favourite  subject;  but  the  bent  of  his  mind  was 
towards  medicine,  and  he  appears  to  have  spent  a  great 
part  of  his  time  among  the  doctors  and  their  apothe- 
caries, or  with  old  Mr.  Jacob  Bobart,  who  kept  the 
Physic  Garden  by  Magdalen  Bridge.  Bobart's  son, 
who  succeeded  to  his  post,  was  the  ingenious  fabricator 
of  a  dragon,  made  from  a  dead  rat,  which  took  in 
Magliabecchi  and  caused  a  great  stir  in  the  scientific 
world;  it  was  kept  in  the  Ashmolean  Museum  as  ^'a 
masterpiece  of  art,"  and  perhaps  is  still  upon  the 
shelves.^  Dr.  Sydenham  used  to  maintain  that  medicine 
could  not  be  learned  at  the  Universities,  and  that  '^one 
had  as  good  send  a  man  to  Oxford  to  learn  shoemaking 
as  practicing  physic";'  but  Sydenham  was  all  for  more 

*  Ward's  Diary,  ed.  Severn,  preface,  pp.  xi.-xiL 

"  Gray,  Notes  on  ^^  HvdihraSy*  quoted  by  Mr.  B.  D.  Jackson  in  Diet 
Nat  Biography  J  vol.  v.,  s,v.  Bobart,  Jacob.  The  dates  of  the  elder 
Bobart  are  1599-1680,  of  the  younger,  1641-17x9. 

•  Ward's  Diary y  u,s,,  p.  242.  Thomas  Sydenham  (1624-89)  was 
fellow  of  All  Souls. 


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300    ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  SHAKESPEARE 

anatomy,  and  for  students  learning  their  profession 
practically  as  apprentices  ;  and  he  was  bitterly  attacked 
by  doctors  of  the  old  school  as  a  decrier  of  natural 
philosophy.  But  there  was  no  lack  of  surgery  at 
Oxford,  if  one  of  Ward's  friends  is  to  be  believed.  A 
young  surgeon  named  Gill  told  stories  about  '^  his  Mr. 
Day,"  who  had  cut  off  plenty  of  limbs,  and  only  two 
patients  had  died ;  and  of  the  German  who  killed  a 
Balliol  man  by  pricking  a  tendop,  and  even  of  a  woman 
who  was  to  be  'Hrepanned  "  on  the  ribs.  Ward  doubts, 
and  asks  ^'  Whether  it  canne  be?"  and  he  sagely  adds, 
**  I  suspected  itt  to  be  a  ly."  ^  He  tells  us  of  a  woman 
at  the  '^Blew  Bore,"  with  three  physicians  in  attend- 
ance, who  could  have  saved  her  if  a  surgeon  had  been 
there  to  open  a  vein.'  There  is  another  story  about 
young  Punter,  who  kept  a  tame  viper,  "  which  stung 
a  dog  of  Bobarts,  so  that  his  head  was  twice  as  bigg  as 
formerly,  and  Jacob  gave  him  white  horehound  and 
aristolochia '  in  butter,  and  cured  him  presently."* 
Some  of  the  information  comes  from  Stephen  Toon,  the 
apothecary,  and  Flexon,  the  barber,  whose  father  kept 
the  Chequers  Inn,  much  used  by  the  country  carriers. 
Flexon  said  that  he  remembered  Mrs.  Kirk,  a  Court 
beauty,  coming  up  in  one  of  the  waggons,  in  very 
mean  attire,  though  she  soon  had  a  lodging  at  All 
Souls ;  he  also  told  Ward  of  a  Cornet  in  the  Guards 
who  used  to  wash  his  face  in  sack  and  be  shaved  in 
half  a  pint  of  the  same.^  We  are  told  something  of 
the  "Antelope,"  where  the  landlord  had  such  an  in- 
firmity of  sleep  upon  him  **that  if  one  yawned  hee 
could  not  chuse  but  yawne " ;  ^  something,  indeed, 
about  all  the  inns,  except  the  **  Crown,"  where  Shake- 
speare lay.     When  Mr.  Ward  went  up  to  London,  he 

*  Id,,  pp.  280,  265-6.  ^  Id.y  pp.  266-7. 

'  u€»  birthwort    Cf.  Cicero,  De  Div,,  i.  10:  "Quid  aristolochia  ad 
morsus  serpentum  possit"  *  Ward's  Diary ,  p.  277. 

•  Id,,  pp.  143,  162.  *  Id.,  p.  122. 


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WARD  AT  OXFORD  AND  IN  LONDON    301 

took  lodgings  at  the  "  Bell,"  in  Aldersgate  Street,  so 
as  to  be  near  ^*  Barber  Surgeons'  Hall."  Lord  Petre 
had  a  house  in  the  same  street,^  occupied  at  that  time 
by  the  Marquess  of  Dorchester,  **the  pride  and  glory 
of  the  Society  of  Physicians."*  Ward  had  much  to  say 
about  the  medical  lectures,  the  skeleton  in  a  frame 
above  the  table,  and  the  wooden  man  showing  the 
muscles,  for  which  Dr.  Charles  Scarborough  had  paid 
;f  lo.'  The  Doctor,  who  was  afterwards  knighted  by 
Charles  IL,  had  been  a  soldier,  marching  up  and  down 
with  the  army,  as  Aubrey  records,  until  Dr.  Harvey 
saw  his  merits,  and  said,  ^'  Prithee  leave  off  thy  gun- 
ning, and  stay  here :  I  will  bring  thee  into  practice."^ 
Ward  devoted  himself  chiefly  to  the  study  of  domestic 
medicine,  with  a  view  to  the  necessities  of  a  country 
living ;  for  he  had  made  up  his  mind  to  settle  down 
in  some  secluded  place,  where  he  could  keep  up  his 
medical  knowledge  in  the  hours  spared  from  Hebrew 
and  Arabic.  He  appears  to  have  been  chiefly  intimate 
with  old  Mr.  Sampson  and  another  chemist,  George 
Hartman,  who  had  served  with  Sir  Kenelm  Digby 
"for  many  years  across  the  seas."  Ward  pronounced 
Sir  Kenelm  Digby  to  be  ''as  great  an  empirick as  any 
in  Europe  "  ;^  but  he  was  not  above  using  some  of  his 
receipts.  When  '*  Goodie  Tomlins"  fell  into  some  un- 
known disease  at  Stratford,  we  find  him  applying 
''Lucatella's  Balsam,"  which  Hartman  prepared  after 
his  master's  own  receipt.  *'  Mark  what  comes  of  itt,"® 
says  Ward  ;  but  as  it  was  chiefly  composed  of  oil,  wine, 
and  wax,  with  St.  John's  wort  and  Venice-turpentine,^ 

*  Id,,  p.  167. 

3  Henry  Pierrepont,  first  Marquess  of  Dorchester,  second  Earl  of 
Kingston  (1608-80),  F.R.C.P.,  1658.  »  Ward's  Diary,  p.  9. 

>    ^  Aubrey,  Brief  Lives,  ed.  Clark,  1898,  L  299,  sub  William  Harvey. 

•  Ward's  Diary,  p.  173. 

^  Id,,^  24&    The  symptoms  of  the  disease  were  asthmatic,  accom- 
panied by  bleeding  from  the  lungs. 

■^  G.  Hartman,  True  Preserver  and  Restorer  of  Health,  1682,  pp.  241-5. 


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302    ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  SHAKESPEARE 

it  was  not  likely  to  do  much  harm.  ^^  Mr,  Hartman/' 
says  Ward,  **  had  a  piece  of  unicorn's  horn,  which  one 
Mr.  Godeski  gave  him ;  hee  had  itt  at  some  foraine 
prince's  court.  I  had  the  piece  in  my  hand.  ...  It 
approved  itself  as  a  true  one,  as  hee  said,  by  this :  iff 
one  drew  a  circle  with  itt  about  a  spider,  shee  would  not 
move  out  of  itt."^ 

"  A  living  drollery.    Now  I  will  believe 
That  there  are  unicorns,  that  in  Arabia 
There  is  one  tree,  the  phoenix'  throne  "  ; 

SO  vows  Sebastian  in  The  Tempest^  and  so  agrees 
Antonio.^  But  the  story  was  upset  by  Shakespeare's 
little  godson,  when  he  was  made  page  to  the  first 
Duchess  of  Richmond.  Aubrey  remembered  hearing 
from  Davenant  how  the  Duchess  '^  sent  him  to  a  famous 
apothecary  for  some  Unicornes-horne,  which  he  was 
resolved  to  try  with  a  spider  which  he  encircled  in 
it,  but  without  the  expected  successe ;  the  spider  would 
goe  over,  and  thorough  and  thorough,  unconcerned."* 
Before  Mr.  Ward  went  to  Stratford,  he  tried  to  obtain 
permission  from  the  Archbishop  to  practise  medicine 
in  all  parts  of  England ;  but  he  could  only  obtain  a 
licence  for  the  province  of  Canterbury.  It  will  be 
remembered  that  the  Bishops  or  Archbishops  had 
power  to  allow  their  clergy  to  practise,  whether  they 
had  taken  a  medical  degree  or  not.  The  form  of  the 
permission  appears  by  one  of  Ward's  memoranda. 
**  A  licens  granted  to  practice  by  Dr.  Chaworth  to  Mr. 
Francis  throughout  the  archbishop's  province,  itt  did 
not  cost  him  full  out  thirty  shillings :  there  were  some 
clauses  in  itt  as  '  quamdiu  se  bene  gesserit,'  and  '  accord- 
ing to  the  laws  of  England,'  but  I  suppose  itt  was  the 
proper  form  which  is  used  in  such  a  case."*    The 

*  Ward's  Diaryy  pp.  171-2.  '  Tempest,  iv.  i,  21-3. 
'  Aubrey,  op*  cii.,  i.  205,  sub  Sir  Wiiliam  Davenant 

*  Ward's  Diaty,  p.  14. 


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THE  CLERGY  AND  MEDICINE         303 

diocesan  ofiScials  seem  to  have  given  a  good  deal  of 
trouble  in  the  matter.  "  Mr.  Burnet  said  of  Mn  Francis 
his  licens,  that  itt  must  bee  renewed  every  year;  the 
apparitor  would  dunne  him  else,  that  his  father  never 
was  nor  never  would  be  doctor;  and  the  apparitor 
used  constantly  to  ply  him,  but  he  laughed  him  out  of 
it."^  Mr.  Ward  collected  evidence  to  show  that 
physic  had  been  practised  by  the  clergy  ever  since  the 
Conquest.  He  makes  special  mention  of  Nicholas  de 
Farnham,  the  chief  English  physician,  and  Bishop  of 
Durham  ;  Hugh  of  Evesham,  physician  and  Cardinal ; 
Tideman  de  Winchcomb,  Bishop  of  LlandafiF,  and 
afterwards  of  Worcester,  who  was  chief  physician  to 
Richard  II. ;  John  Chambers,  Doctor  of  Physic,  last 
head  of  Peterborough  Abbey,  and  first  Bishop  of  the 
new  see;  and  Paul  Bush,  **an  Oxford  B.D.,"  well 
read  both  in  physic  and  theology,  whose  work  on 
**Certayne  Costly  Medycynes  necessary  to  be  used 
among  wel  disposed  people  to  eschew  and  avoid  the 
comen  plague  of  pestilence,"  was  printed  by  Redman.^ 

*  /ct,  pp.  13-14. 

*  Id,  J  pp.  117,  x6a  Nicholas  of  Famham  died  in  1248;  Ward  writes 
his  surname  as  Temham  {sic),  Hugh  of  Evesham  (d.  1287)  ^^^  physician 
to  Pope  Martin  IV.,  and  wrote  Cananes  MedicinaUs. 

Ward  is  guilty,  with  Bishop  Godwin  (de  Prasulilms,  ii.  138),  of  con- 
fusing Abbot  (afterwards  Bishop)  John  Chambers  (d.  1556),  whose  de- 
grees were  merely  M.A.  and  B.D.  of  Cambridge,  with  John  Chambre 
(1470- 1 549)  dean  of  St  Stephen's,  Westminster,  and  holder  of  various 
preferments  at  Lincoln  and  in  other  cathedral  bodies.  Chambre  was  a 
fellow  of  Merton,  and  warden  from  1525  to  1544;  he  became  M.D.  of 
Padua  in  1506,  and  of  Oxford  in  1531.  He  was  physician  to  Henry  VH. 
and  Henry  VUI.,  and  in  the  famous  picture  of  Henry  VHI.  and  the 
company  of  Barber-Sui^eons  he  occupies  a  conspicuous  place.  The 
late  Precentor  Venables  pointed  out  Godwin's  error  in  Diet,  Nat,  Biog,^ 
voL  X.,  svh  Chambers,  John.  Ward  probably  borrowed  it  from  God- 
win's work.  See  article  by  Dr.  Norman  Moore  on  John  Chambre  in 
Diet  Nat  BU>g    u,s, 

**  Syr  Paull  Busshe,  prest  and  bonhomme  of  the  good  house  Edynden  " 
(i,e.  Edingdon),  as  he  describes  himself  in  the  work  mentioned  in  the  text, 
was  the  first  Bishop  of  Bristol  in  1542.  He  married  Edith  Ashley,  and 
resigned  his  see  in  1554,  from  which  time  to  his  death  in  1558  he  was 
rector  of  Winterboume,  near  BristoL     He  and  his  wife  are  buried  in  the 


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304    ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  SHAKESPEARE 

We  may  add  to  this  list  such  names  as  those  of  the 
Rev.  Charles  Evelegh,  M.D.,  vicar  of  Harberton, 
Devon,  in  1678 ;  the  Rev.  Hamnett  Ward,  D.  Med.  of 
Angers,  rector  of  Porlock,  Somerset,  in  1662  ;  and  the 
Rev.  William  Stukely,  M.D.,  rector  of  St.  George's, 
Queen  Square,  in  1747,  F.R.C.P.,  F.R.S.,  and  F.S.A. 


II 

WARD  AT  STRATFORD— HIS  NOTES  ON  SHAKESPBARB'S  DEATH 
— SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY  EProEMICS— CONVIVIAL  HABnS  OF 
THE   DAY 

When  Mr.  Ward  came  to  Stratford  in  the  winter  of 
1662,  he  seems  to  have  embarked  without  delay  upon 
a  course  of  medical  experiments.  The  church  bone- 
house,  divided  only  by  a  door  from  the  chancel,  con- 
tained in  itself  a  whole  treasury  of  relics.  He  was 
interested  in  some  question  about  the  cranium,  and 
there  were  plenty  of  skulls  **  knocked  about  the 
mazzard,"^  and  piled  on  a  shelf.  ^'I  searched  thirty- 
four  skulls,  or  thereabouts,  and  of  them  all  I  found  but 
four  which  had  the  suture  downe  the  forehead  to  the 
very  nose;  another  which  seemed  to  have  a  squami- 
forme  suture  uppon  the  vertex,  which  I  admird  very 
much  at."^     **  Here's  fine  revolution,  an  we  had  the 

north  aisle  of  the  choir  of  Bristol  Cathedral.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  his 
"  medycynes"  against  the  pestilence  were  merely  "gostly." 

Ward,  between  the  names  of  Hugh  of  Evesham  and  Tideman,  adds 
''Grysant,  physician  and  pope."  The  reference  is  not  obvious  at  first 
sight ;  but  he  doubtless  meant  Guillaume  de  Grimoard,  bom  at  Grisac 
in  Languedoc  in  1309,  a  Benedictine,  and  abbot  of  St  Victor  at  Mar- 
seilles. He  was  for  a  time  professor  at  Montpellier,  the  chief  medical 
school  of  France.  In  13621  on  the  death  of  Innocent  VI.,  he  was  chosen 
pope  at  Avignon,  and  took  the  name  of  Urban  V.  See  Gregorovius, 
Geschichte  der  Stadt  Rom  (English  translation,  vi.  407).  He  is  famous 
for  his  temporary  transfer  of  the  papacy  from  Avignon  to  Rome,  ijfiy-ya 
He  died  in  1370,  soon  after  his  return  from  Rome. 

^  Hamlet,  v.  i ,  97.  *  Ward's  Diary y  p.  238. 


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WARD'S   MEDICAL  EXPERIMENTS     305 

trick  to  see't."^  Mr.  Ward  seems  to  have  been  a  bold 
experimenter,  perhaps  not  much  averse  from  damaging 
a  patient  in  the  cause  of  science.  ^'  Remember  to  hire 
some  fellow  or  other  to  have  a  caustick  made  uppon 
him,  that  I  may  see  the  manner  of  itts  operation,"^ 
When  Goody  Roberts  caught  the  small-pox,  he  under- 
took the  case,  for,  ^'apothecaries  in  •  .  .  suchlike 
diseases  which  are  infectious,  charge  for  attendance."^ 
He  tried  antimony  for  its  action  on  the  skin,  quoting 
the  authority  of  Dr.  Sabel  of  Warwick,  who  gave  a 
drachm  at  a  time.*  We  observe  that  it  was  the  chief 
ingredient  in  one  of  Hartman's  receipts,  invented  by 
Dr.  Cornachine  of  Pisa,  who  **made  a  great  com- 
mentary on  it,"  and  strongly  recommended  by  Digby. 
**The  Diaphoretick  Antimony  you  may  buy  for  six- 
pence an  ounce,"  says  Hartman  ;^  so  that  it  had  also 
the  merit  of  cheapness.  Ward  said  that  it  succeeded 
very  well  with  his  patient:  **so  that  in  short,  I  think 
diaphoreticks  canne  do  no  hurt  in  feavours,  practice 
itt  constantly. "«  On  another  occasion  he  says:  ** Can- 
not you  use  a  loving  violence?  That  expression 
was  Phipps  his,  of  giving  nature  a  fillip.  .  •  .  He 
used  in  desperate  cases  to  give  many  cordials;  and 
when  he  gave  any  thing  that  was  desperate  say,  *  With 
itt  they  may  die,  but  without  itt  they  will  die.' "  ^ 

Mr.  Ward  paid  particular  attention  to  fevers,  as 
being  especially  prevalent  at  Stratford.  He  distrusted 
the  ordinary  methods  of  cure,  and  especially  hated 
the  doctors'  fondness  for  bleeding,  as  if  it  must  be 
the  **  prologue  to  the  play."^  He  laughed  at  their 
''Chaldaean  charms,"  and  could  see  little  to  admire  in 
viper-broth,  a  mole's  liver,  or  the  foot  of  a  tortoise.® 


*  Hamlet f  u,s*y  98-9.  •  Ward's  Diary,  p.  274. 
'  Id,,  pp.  236,  1 06.  *  Id,,  p.  236. 

*  Hartman,  True  Preserver  and  Restorer  of  Health,  1682,  pp.  275-6. 
^  Ward's  Diary,  p.  236.  "^  Id, ,  p.  25a 

«  Id.,  p.  252.  •  Id.,  pp.  242-3. 

X 


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3o6    ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  SHAKESPEARE 

He  was,  in  fact,  remarkably  free  from  the  superstitions 
of  his  time ;  but  he  would  never  open  a  vein  when  the 
moon  was  new  or  at  the  full.*  Most  of  the  clerical 
practitioners  in  those  parts  seem  to  have  hankered  after 
the  occult.  Dr.  Napier  and  his  friend  Mr.  Marsh,  both 
holding  livings  in  Buckinghamshire,  were  astrologers 
as  well  as  physicians.^  Mr.  Marsh  told  a  friend  of 
Aubrey's  that  he  worked  under  the  direct  guidance  of 
certain  "blessed  Spirits";  and  Nick  Culpepper  told 
Ward  himself  that  "  a  physitian  without  astrologie  is 
like  a  pudden  without  fat."*  The  notes  upon  various 
local  maladies  have  an  interest  in  connection  with 
Shakespeare's  last  illness.  Ward  remarked,  for  ex- 
ample, that  after  a  cold  winter  and  spring  there  was  a 
great  outbreak  of  measles,  and  '^men,  about  July,  had 
agues  and  feavours  in  abundance  " ;  and  most  people 
were  strangely  disordered,  "  some  with  coughs,  some 
with  headach,  some  with  one  thing,  some  with  an- 
other."* Again,  towards  August,  1668,  after  a  warm 
winter  and  spring  and  **a  strange  moist  summer,*' 
there  was  a  prevalence  of  throat  disease  and  such-like 
distempers.*  All  these  feverish  disorders  were  caused 
in  Ward's  opinion  by  **sootie  vapours,"  or  foul  air.^ 
Frogs  and  serpents  could  less  live  in  Ireland,  ''foxes  in 
Crete,  stagges  in  Africa,  horses  in  Ithaca,  and  fishes  in 
warme  water,  than  the  heart  of  man  abide  with  impure 
smels,  or  live  long  in  infected  air."^  His  note  on 
Shakespeare's  illness  is  as  follows:  "Shakespeare, 
Drayton,  and  Ben  Jonson,  had  a  merie  meeting,  and  itt 
seems  drank  too  hard,  for  Shakespear  died  of  a  feavour 

1  Id,,  p.  253. 

2  Richard  Napier  or  Napper,  1559-1634,  was  rector  of  Great  Linford, 
near  Newport  Pagnell.     See  Aubrey,  op,  cit,  i.  91. 

*  Ward's  Diary,  p.  95. 

^  Id,y  pp.  270-1 :  "After  a  cold  winter,  a  cool  spring,  and  a  very  hot 
summer." 

*  /fit,  p.  272;  see  also  p.  i6a     "In  the  heat  of  sumer,  about  July 
and  August  (1668),  wee  had  in  Stratford  fewer  burials  than  ordinary." 

«  Id.,  p.  254.  '  Id,,  p.  255. 


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WARD  ON  SHAKESPEARE'S  DEATH    307 

there  contracted."^  We  need  not  dispute  the  existence 
of  the  fever.  The  question  is  why  Mr.  Ward  should 
have  put  it  down  to  *' drinking  too  hard."  The  story 
may  have  come  from  one  of  the  Harts  or  Mrs.  Hatha- 
way of  Chapel  Street.  The  Vicar  might  have  heard 
it  at  the  "Bear,"  among  the  gentlemen's  servants,  or  at 
the  new  '* Falcon,"  with  the  poet's  crest  on  the  sign- 
board, or  the  "George,"  where,  as  we  know  from  his 
Diary,  he  dropped  in  to  take  a  flagon  of  ale.* 

We  learn  nothing  from  Dr.  Hall's  case-books,  which 
as  we  have  seen,  contained  no  memoranda  of  the 
year  in  which  his  father-in-law  died.  But  we  are  not 
without  the  means  of  forming  some  opinion  on  the 
matter.  The  first  quarter  of  the  seventeenth  century 
was  marked  by  the  appearance  of  epidemic  fevers  more 
malignant  in  type  than  the  old-fashioned  tertians  and 
agues.  There  was  a  "  new  disease  "  in  161 2,  to  which 
Henry,  Prince  of  Wales,  fell  a  victim.  It  seems  to  have 
been  of  a  typhoid  nature,  to  judge  by  the  official 
reports  and  the  discussion  of  the  symptoms  by  Dr. 
Norman  Moore  in  the  volume  printed  for  St.  Bartholo- 
mew's Hospital  in  1882.*  The  epidemic  of  1615-16  was 
more  like  some  kind  of  influenza.  The  signs  are 
described  by  Ben  Jonson  in  Every  Man  in  his  Humour. 
"  My  head  aches  extremely  on  a  sudden,"  says  Kitely. 
"Alas,  how  it  burns,"  cries  his  wife.  She  thinks  that 
her  "  good  mouse  "  must  have  caught  the  fever,  though 
it  is  only  jealousy.  "  Keep  you  warm  :  good  truth  it  is 
this  new  disease,  there's  a  number  are  troubled  withal."  * 
The  more  virulent  typhus  was  of  rare  occurrence, 
except  the  occasional  visitations  of  gaol-fever,  as  to 
which  Ward's  Diary  contains  some  useful  remarks: 
"  Within  these  eight  or  nine  years  there  happened  the 
like  in  Southwark,  which  did  in  King  James'  time, 

^     Id,y    p.      183.  2     /</.,p.      141. 

•  The  Illness  and  Death  of  Henry ^  Prince  of  Wales j  in  2612,  1882. 
^  Every  Man  in  his  Humaur^  ii.  i. 


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3o8    ILLUSTRATIONS   OF  SHAKESPEARE 

which  Bacon  mentions  as  killing  the  judges  by  the 
scent  of  the  prisoners ;  one  speedie  way  to  bring  the 
plague."  *  War-typhus  was  not  known  in  this  country 
before  1643,  and  Shakespeare  himself  called  England  a 

"  fortress  built  by  Nature  for  herself 
Against  infection  and  the  hand  of  war."^ 

It  raged  as  a  pestilence  during  the  Civil  War. 
**  Wounds  of  the  body,"  says  Ward,  **are  more  diffi- 
cultly cured  when  the  air  is  corrupt,  as  appeared  at 
Wallingford,  in  the  time  of  the  late  warre,  where, 
because  the  air  was  infected,  allmost  all  wounds  were 
mortall."'  "Mr.  Swanne  told  mee  a  storie  of  the 
experience  they  had  in  feavours,  in  letting  their  men 
doe  what  they  would  ;  their  chyrurgions  did  keep  them 
to  a  strict  diet,  as  broaths  and  the  like,  in  feavours,  and 
they  all  died  ;  after,  by  permitting  them  to  eat  what 
they  pleased  in  moderation,  they  lost  not  a  man  ;  which 
argues  the  methodical  doctors  to  bee  infinitely  out  in 
their  pretended  way  of  cure."*  The  **inch  dyet,"  he 
concluded,  "wherein  wee  eat  by  drammes  and  drink 
by  spoonfuls,  more  perplexeth  the  mind  than  cureth 
the  bodie."^  The  Vicar  described  another  "new  dis- 
ease" which  appeared  at  Stratford  in  his  time,  and 
commonly  cloked  itself  "under  the  ague,  so  much  the 
more  dangerous."  • 

Some  thought  that  Prince  Henry  died  of  the  ague ; 
but  the  more  usual  opinion  was  that  he  brought  on  his 
illness  by  an  irregularity  in  melons  or  some  such 
watery  fruit.  He  had  been  bathing  at  Richmond  too 
often.  He  was  always  taking  oysters,  like  Lord 
Shaftesbury's  friend,  who  had  a  full  oyster-table  at  one 
end  of  the  hall.  The  King  himself  had  laughed  at 
such  a  habit,  saying,   "Hee  was  a  valiant  man  that 

*  Id,,  p.  2^S,  *  Richard IL,  ii.  i,  43-4. 

3  Ward's  Diary,  p.  235.  *  /li.,  p.  253. 

»  Idy  p.  254.  •  /{/.,p.  256. 

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FEVERS  AND   EPIDEMICS  309 

durst  first  eat  oysters,"  as  Ward  has  noted.  ^  Some  said 
that  the  Prince  played  tennis  too  violently  in  a  summer 
"excessive  in  degree  and  continuance  of  heat  beyond 
the  memory  of  living  man  " ;  and  yet  people  who  got 
hot  by  exercise  were  not  usually  troubled  with  fevers 
**in  regard  that  itt  [the  heat]  evaporates  the  sootie 
vapours  which  cause  them."*  Everyone  was  ready 
with  some  personal  detail  to  account  for  the  disease, 
like  the  gossips  who  talked  to  Mr.  Ward  about  Shake- 
speare's case ;  and  they  quite  forgot  that  thousands 
of  similar  iniS(tances,  to  which  these  personalities  could 
not  be  applied,  were  being  registered  in  all  parts  of  the 
country.  Dr.  Creighton  has  shown  us  in  his  work 
on  Epidemics  that  the  year  in  which  Shakespeare  died 
was  extremely  unhealthy.  It  was,  indeed,  a  worse 
season  than  had  been  known  since  1605,  when  there 
had  been  a  bad  outbreak  of  fever  and  plague  ;  and  the 
mortality  was  not  so  great  again  until  the  fever-stricken 
summer  of  1623.  The  winter  that  preceded  the  poet's 
death  was  of  a  very  exceptional  character.  "Warm 
and  tempestuous  .  .  .  winds  prevailed  from  November 
to  February."  The  storms  came  from  the  west  and 
south-west,  and  there  were  East-Indian  ships  anchored 
for  ten  weeks  in  the  Downs,  unable  to  proceed  down 
Channel.  "The  warm  winds  brought  *  perpetual  weep- 
ing-weather, foul  ways  and  great  floods.' "  The  spring 
came  much  too  early,  and  we  hear  of  blackbirds  hatch- 
ing out  their  young  in  Archbishop  Abbot's  garden 
at  Lambeth  before  the  end  of  February.  Altogether, 
though  we  do  not  know  that  any  single  type  of  disease 
predominated,  it  is  clearly  made  out  that  there  was  in 
fact  an  extraordinary  mortality.' 

With  regard  to  the  Vicar's  suggestion  that  the  three 
poets  held  a  convivial  party,  we  should  remember  that 
at  that  time  the  subject  of  drunkenness  was  generally 

*  Id,^  p.  III.  '^  Id, J  p.  254. 

'  C.  Creig-hton,  History  of  Epidemics ^  i.  513. 


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3IO    ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  SHAKESPEARE 

treated  as  a  joke.  "  One  Mr.  Cutler,  of  our  house," 
says  the  worthy  Vicar,  "when  hee  was  allmost  drunk, 
used  to  say,  ^  Now,  gentlemen,  wee  beginne  to  come  to 
ourselves.'"^  He  tells  a  story  of  a  Dutchman  who 
visited  Oxford  in  his  time,  where  "they  did  so  liquor 
his  hide  "  that  he  made  an  entry  in  his  table-book  of 
their  Modus  Bibendi  called  Once  agamey  "qui  fecit  me 
pernoctare  in  Bagley  Wood.***  .Burton  was  writing 
his  book  on  Melancholy  about  the  time  of  Shake- 
speare's death,  though  it  was  not  published  till  about 
five  years  afterwards ;  and  according  to  him,  things 
were  at  such  a  pass  "  that  he  is  no  Gentleman,  a  very 
milksop,  a  clown,  of  no  bringing  up,  that  will  not 
drink."  Of  the  tradesmen  he  says  that  drinking  was 
their  ^'summum  bonum  .  .  .  their  felicity,  life,  and 
soul,'*  and  "their  chief  comfort,  to  be  merry  together 
in  an  Alehouse  or  Tavern,  as  our  modern  Musco- 
vites  do  in  their  Mede-inns,  and  Turks  in  their  Coffee- 
houses." Their  favourite  proverb  taught  that  there 
was  as  much  valour  in  feasting  as  in  fighting ;  and  so 
they  "wilfully  pervert  the  good  temperature  of  their 
bodies,  stifle  their  wits,  strangle  nature,  and  degenerate 
into  beasts."^  If  the  meeting  of  the  three  poets  took 
place  at  all,  London  would  seem  to  be  the  likeliest  place 
of  rendezvous.  Ben  Jonson  was  employed  there  in 
1616  in  bringing  out  the  collected  edition  of  his  works, 
and  it  was  in  the  same  year  that  he  produced  his 
comedy  called  TTie  Devil  is  an  Ass.  His  conversations 
with  Drummond  at  Hawthornden  took  place  only  three 
years  afterwards.  They  talked  about  the  merits  of  the 
English  poets,  including  Drayton  and  Shakespeare, 
and  about  Jonson's  own  knowledge  of  their  characters 
and  his  behaviour  towards  them.  If  the  meeting  had 
taken  place,  it  would  be  strange  indeed  that  it  should 

^  Ward's  Diary,  p.  12a  ^  Id,,  p,  124. 

'  Burton,  AncUotny  of  Melancholy ,  part  i.  §  2,  memb.  2,  subs.  2  (ed. 
ShiUeto,  vol.  i.  261-3). 


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WARD  ON  SHAKESPEARE  311 

not  have  been  discussed  on  that  occasion,  especially  as 
Jonson  spoke  of  his  dislike  of  Dra)rton.  The  visitor 
allowed  that  Michael  Drayton's  ''long  verses  pleased 
him  noty'^  and  that  he  ''esteemed  not  of"  Drayton;  and 
he  boasted  that  Drayton  was  afraid  of  him.  At  Strat- 
ford/however,  it  would  seem  the  most  natural  of  all 
things  to  suppose  that  Shakespeare  would  consort  with 
the  two  great  poets  with  whose  names  the  townsmen 
were  most  familiar.^ 


Ill 

ward's   memoranda   on  Shakespeare's  art — illustrative 
phrases  in  the  diary. 

Mr.  Ward  had  something  to  say  about  Shakespeare's 
plays,  though  he  seems  to  have  known  little  about  the 
poems.  "I  have  heard  that  Mr.  Shakespeare  was  a 
natural  wit,  without  any  art  at  alL"^  Jonson  was 
known  to  have  said  that  Shakespeare  "wanted  art,"* 
though  he  expressed  a  very  different  opinion  in  his 
introduction  to  the  collected  plays.  Mr.  Ward  was 
perhaps  referring  to  the  "Virgilian  art,"  which  was 
claimed  for  the  poet  on  his  monument.  "  Hee  fre- 
quented the  plays,"  continues  the  Vicar,  "all  his 
younger  time,  but  in  his  elder  days  lived  at  Stratford, 
and  supplied  the  stage  with  two  plays  every  year,  and 
for  itt  had  an  allowance  so  large,  that  hee  spent  att 
the  rate  of  ;fiooo  a-year,  as  I  have  heard."  Others 
put  the  amount  at  jf  300 ;  but  even  the  latter  opinion 
may  have  been  exaggerated.  "  Remember,"  says 
Ward,  "  to  peruse  Shakespeare's  plays,  and  bee  much 
versed  in  them,  that  I  may  not  be  ignorant  in  that 

^  NoUs  of  Ben  Jonson' s  Conversations  with  William  Drummondt  ed. 
Lang  (Shakespeare  Soc.,  1842),  p.  2.  On  p.  10 :  "  Drayton  feared  him  ; 
and  he  esteemed  not  of  him."  *  Ward's  Diary ^  p.  183. 

•  Notes  oj  Ben  Jonson*  5  Conversations  ^  u.s.,  p,  3. 


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312    ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  SHAKESPEARE 

matter."      He    already    doubts    in    his    own    mind, 
"whether  Dr.  Heylin  does  well,  in  reckoning  up  the 
dramatick  poets  which  have  been  famous  in  England, 
to  omit  Shakespeare."^     Dr.  Peter  Heylyn  of  Mag- 
dalen College,  Oxford,  wrote  a  celebrated  Description 
of  the  Worldy  first  published  in   162 1,  and  afterwards 
expanded  into  the  folio  Cosmography.^    The  Puritans 
hated  him  for  his  opinions,  and  one  of  their  preachers 
pointed  out  Heylyn  to  the  congregation  as  the  "geo- 
graphical knave  "  that  went  to  and  fro  and  compassed 
the  earth.     The  King  ordered  his  book  to  be  sup- 
pressed, because  France  and  the  French  King  were 
given  precedence  over  England  ;  but  the  author  got  out 
of  it  by  saying  that  the  printer  had  changed  "was"  into 
"is,"  and  that  he  took  the  rest  of  the  sentence  out  of 
Camden,  and  was  besides  only  speaking  of  England 
before  it  was  "augmented  by  Scotland."*    Mr.  Thorns 
quotes  Aubrey  as  saying  that  Dr.  Heylyn  wrote  the 
History  of  St.  George  of  Cappadocia,  "which  is  a  very 
blind  business  ...  I  don't  thinke   Dr.   Heylin  con- 
sulted so  much  Greeke."*    He  also  wrote  an  account 
of  the  Presbyterians,  the  famous  life  of  Archbishop 
Laud  called  Cyprianus  Anglicus  (1668),  and  a  curious 
work  called  A  Help  to  English  History y  which  became 
the  foundation  of  Collins'  Peerage  and  Baronetage.^ 
His    opinions    on   Shakespeare  as  a  dramatist  seem 
to    have    been   "a  very    blind  business,"  to  borrow 
Aubrey's  phrase. 

*  Ward's  Diary ^  pp.  183-4. 

^  The  title  of  the  original  work  was  MiKpoKOff/AOSy  A  little  description 
of  the  Great  World,  expanded  into  Cosmographie  in  four  bookes,  contain- 
ing- the  horographie  and  historic  of  the  whole  world,  etc.,  4  pt,  London, 
1652,  fol. 

'  W.  J.  Thorns,  Anecdotes  and  Traditions,  illustrative  of  Early 
English  History  and  Literature  (Camden  Society),  1839,  pp.  2-33  (Na 
Ivii.,  from  Sir  R.  L'Estrange,  No.  274). 

*  Id,,  102-3  (No.  clxxiv.). 

®  'HpwoXo7(a  Anglorum  ;  or,  an  Help  to  English  History  containing  a 
succession  of  all  the  Kings  of  England,  etc.,  1641,  i2mo. 


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GILDON  ON  SHAKESPEARE  313 

Gildon  has  a  better  account  of  the  matter,  though  he 
was  very  ignorant  about  the  **  smaller  pieces."  Shake- 
speare, he  says,  wrote  many  plays,  such  as  TheTempestj 
brought  much  into  esteem  by  Mr.  Dryden,  and  Pericles, 
^'  much  admired  in  the  Author's  Lifetime  and  published 
before  his  Death  " ;  but,  after  his  list  of  genuine  and 
doubtful  plays,  he  adds,  ''Our  author  writ  little  else, 
we  find  in  print  only  two  small  pieces  of  Poetry  pub- 
lish'd  by  Mr.  Quarles^  viz;  Venus  and  Adonis^  8v0j 
1602,  and  TTie  Rape  ofLucrece,  8v0y  1655."  *'He  was 
both  Player  and  Poet ;  but  the  greatest  Poet  that  ever 
trod  the  stage."  ^  Such,  no  doubt,  was  Mr.  Ward's 
opinion.  At  any  rate,  he  carried  out  his  design  of 
perusing  the  plays,  since  a  folio  Shakespeare  appeared 
among  the  effects  bequeathed  by  him  in  1681  to  his 
brother,  the  Rev.  Thomas  Ward,  rector  of  Stow-on- 
the-Wold  in  Gloucestershire.  The  editor  of  his  papers 
tells  us  that  there  was  a  slip  of  paper  pasted  into  the 
volume  with  **W.  Shakespeare"  inscribed  on  it,  and 
suggests  that  this  may  have  been  a  genuine  autograph 
chained  at  Stratford.^  There  are  a  few  odd  phrases  in 
the  Diary  which  show  how  constantly  the  compiler  bore 
Shakespeare  in  mind. 

Of  the  May-weed,  or  wild  camomile,  Lyly  had  said 
in  EuphueSj  that  '*the  more  it  is  trodden  and  pressed 
down,  the  more  it  spreadeth."*  Old  Falstaff  had  repeated 
the  metaphor  :  **  The  Camomile,  the  more  it  is  trodden 
on  the  faster  it  grows."*  It  was  indeed  a  regular  say- 
ing among  the  farmers,  who  hated  the  straggling 
"mathes"  which  infested  every  pathway  through  the 
corn.  Ward  probably  knew  nothing  about  Euphues; 
but  he  may,  perhaps,  have  had  Falstaff  in  his  mind 
when  he  pressed  the  metaphor  into  his  service.     **The 

^  Langbaine,  Account  of  English  Dramatic  PoetSy  continued  by  Gildon, 
i699>  PP'  126-9. 
"  Ward's  Diary,  pp.  33,  24.  *  Euphues,  1579,  cd.  Arber,  p.  46. 

•*  I  Henry  IV.,  ii.  4,  441-2. 


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314     ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  SHAKESPEARE 

Church  of  God,"  he  writes,  **is  like  camomill,  the 
more  you  tread  itt,  the  more  you  spread  itt/'^ 

We   may   find   another  example  in   Shakespeare's 
sonnet  upon  changeful  weather : 

**  Why  didst  thou  promise  such  a  beauteous  day 
And  make  me  travel  forth  without  my  cloak?  "^ 

The  motive  of  the  poem  is  shown  by  the  words  of  Sir 
Proteus  when  he  rhapsodises  in  the  Tzoo  Gentlemen  of 
Vetxma  " : 

*'  O,  how  this  spring  of  love  resembleth 
The  uncertain  glory  of  an  April  day, 
Which  now  shows  all  the  beauty  of  the  sim, 
And  by  and  by  a  cloud  takes  all  away."' 

In  the  second  quatrain  of  the  sonnet  we  are  reminded 
that  a  half-cure  is  no  cure  at  all ;  it  is  not  enough  to 
wipe  the  rain-drops  from  the  storm-beaten  face : 

'*  For  no  man  well  of  such  a  salve  can  speak 
That  heals  the  wound  and  cures  not  the  disgrace,*' 

Mr.  Ward  may  have  had  this  in  his  thoughts  when 
he  wrote  the  memorandum  in  his  book:  *'  Hee  that  is 
branded  with  anie  hainious  crime,  when  the  wound  is 
cured,  his  credit  will  bee  killed  with  the  scarre."* 

He  meditates  upon  death  thus;  ''Wee  poor  men 
steal  into  our  graves  with  no  greater  noise  than  can  bee 
made  by  a  sprigg  of  rosemary  or  a  black  ribband  .  .  . 
no  cometDr  prodigie  tolls  us  the  bell  of  our  departure."^ 
We  remember  the  "fires  in  the  element"  that  boded 

^  Ward's  Diary ^  p.  211.  '  Sonnet  xsodv. 

'  Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona^  i.  3,  84-7.  *  Ward's  Diary^  p.  239. 

'  It  is  not  unlikely  that  Ward  may  have  remembered  the  prodigies 
related  in  Macbeth^  act  ii.  sc.  4.     His  phrase  ''tolls  the  bell  of  our 
departure "  echoes  the  characteristic  accent  of  the  most  striking  pas- 
sages in  that  tragedy.     His  sentiment,  in  a  more  violent  form,  occurs  in 
Webster's  White  Devil,  with  a  strong  similarity  of  phrase* 
"  O  thou  soft  natural  death,  that  art  joint-twin 
To  sweetest  slumber !  no  rough-bearded  comet 
Stares  on  thy  mild  departure.  ..."  etc. 


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SHAKESPEAREAN  PHRASES  IN  WARD  315 

Caesar's  death,  and  spirits  running  up  and  down  in  the 
night,  ^  and  how  Shakespeare  improved  Plutarch's  story 
by  adding  the  '^  exhalations  whizzing  in  the  air,"  and 
all  the  phenomena  of  a  great  meteor-shower : 

**  Never  till  to-night,  never  till  now, 
Did  I  go  through  a  tempest  dropping  fire."^ 

For  a  more  modern  example  we  may  cite  Howell,  tell- 
ing his  father  of  the  Queen's  death  at  Denmark  House : 
"which  is  held  to  be  one  of  the  fatal  Events  that 
follow'd  the  last  fearful  Comet  that  rose  in  the  Tail  of 
the  Constellation  of  Virgo  "^  Mr.  Ward  found  as  many 
prodigies  and  omens  in  his  own  experience  as  had 
been  observed  during  the  siege  of  Jerusalem.  "The 
Stars  to  do  their  duty  did  not  fail ;  the  elements  have 
often  spoke  already."  So  sang  George  Wither  un- 
melodiously  in  his  Sighs  for  the  Pitchers;^  and  the 
Vicar  adds,  "Wee  had  two  comets  succeeding  each 
other  in  few  months  before  the  late  devouring  pestilence 
and  consuming  fire,  visibly  seen  in  and  over  London, 
not  to  bee  paralleld  in  any  age."^  But  the  star-gazers, 
as  Howell  said,  were  always  obtruding  their  predic- 
tions, and  were  so  familiar  with  the  heavenly  bodies 
"  that  Ptolemy  and  Tycho  Brahe  were  Ninnies  to 
them."« 

In  the  same  letter  of  Howell  we  have  a  Shakespearean 
phrase,  of  which  Ward  afterwards  made  a  singular  use 
in  describing  the  Gunpowder  Plot.  "  I  fear,  that  while 
France  sets  all  wheels  a-going,  and  stirs  all  the  Coco- 
dcemons  of  Hell  to  pull  down  the  House  of  Austriuy 

*  North,  Plutarch^  ed.  Rouse,  vol.  vii.  pp.  202-3. 
^  Julius  CtesaTy  ii.  i,  44 ;  i.  3,  9-10. 

'  Epp.  Ho-Ml,  ed.  Jacobs,  p.  105  (i.  §  2,  let  7 :  20  Mar,  1618,  O.S.). 
Mr.  Jacobs  points  out  (uf.,  p.  719)  that  Anne's  death  took  place  at 
Hampton  Court,  not  Denmark  House,  on  2  March,  161 8-19. 

*  Sigh[s]/br  the  Pitchers:  Breathed  out  in  a  Personal  Contribution  to 
the  National  Humiliation;  etc,  1666,  p.  16. 

*  Ward's  Diary y  p.  309. 

*  Epp.  Ho-EL,  p.  506  (ii.  let  76:  Fleet,  3  Feb,  1646). 


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3i6    ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  SHAKESPEARE 

she  may  chance  at  last  to  pull  it  upon  her  own  head."  ^ 
The  last  words  seem  to  refer  to  what  Henry  VI 1 1,  said 
about  the  Supplication  of  the  Beggars:  "If  a  man 
should  pull  down  an  old  stone  wall  and  begin  at  the 
lower  party  the  upper  part  might  chance  to  fall  upon 
his  head."^  As  to  the  cacodaemons,  their  very  name 
implies  that  they  were  the  worst  of  fiends.  In  Greek, 
the  word  is  an  adjective  implying  subjection  to  a  bad 
angel  or  evil  genius.*  In  the  science  of  astrology  it 
was  a  term  of  deep  meaning,  and  signified  the  "  twelfth 
House  "  in  a  figure  of  the  heavens,  "  because  of  its 
baleful  signification."^  Shakespeare,  however,  uses 
the  word  as  if  it  only  meant  a  demon.  Queen  Mar- 
garet applies  it  with  great  force  to  Richard  III. : — 

"  Hie  thee  to  hell  for  shame  and  leave  this  world, 
Thou  Cacodaemon !  there  thy  kingdom  is."  * 

To  understand  further  Ward's  use  of  the  phrase,  we 
must  turn  to  the  dialogue  between  Duke  Humphrey 
and  his  wife  in  the  second  part  of  Henty  VI.  **  Nay, 
Eleanor,"  he  chides;  and  ^'Ill-nurtured  Eleanor,"  and 
**wilt  thou  still  be  hammering  treachery? "•  When 
Ward  describes  the  Gunpowder  Plot,  we  see  that  he  is 
combining  two  or  three  Shakespearean  phrases,  and  is 
not  borrowing  from  letter-writer  or  astrologer:  **  It 
is  said  of  the  gunpowder  plott,  that  itt  seemd  a  piece 
rather  hammerd  in  hell  by  a  conventicle  of  caco- 
demons,  than  tracd  by  humane  invention."^ 

*  /i,  p.  505,  U,5. 

^  Fox,  Acts  and  Monuments^  3rd  ed.,  1576,  p.  896.  See  Fish*s  Suppli- 
caiioHf  ed.  Arber,  pp.  xv.-xvi. 

'  Liddell  and  Scott  cite  Aristophanes,  E^,t  112,  for  the  substantival  use 
of  KaKodalfJuafs^an  evil  genius,  as  in  Shakespeare. 

*  In  this  sense  cf.  Fletcher,  The  Bloody  Brother,  iv.  2 :  "The  twelfth 
the  Cacodemon"  (cited  by  New  Eng,  Diet,  5. v.). 

'  Richard  III,  <t  i.,  3,  143-4.  •  2  Henry  F/.,  i.  2,  41  5a 

'  Ward's  Diary ,  p.  163. 


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WARD  AND  THE  HISTORICAL  PLAYS    317 


IV 

HISTORICAL  REFERENCES— WARD  ON  THE  HISTORY  AND  AN- 
TIQUITIES OF  STRATFORD  AND  THE  NEIGHBOURHOOD— HIS 
ACQUAINTANCE  WITH   SHAKESPEARE*S  RELATIONS 

Let  us  now  consider  some  of  the  historical  memo- 
randa, which  are  scattered  without  order  through  the 
Diary,  though  they  all  seem  to  have  a  direct  bearing 
on  the  subject  of  the  Vicar's  studies.  The  first  relates 
to  one  who,  like  his  master,  assumed  ''the  port  of 

Mars,"  one  of 

"  the  very  casques 
That  did  affright  the  air  at  Agincourt."  ^ 

"  Richard  Beauchamp,  Earl  of  Warwick,"  says  Ward, 
''was  a  roaring  housekeeper,  six  oxen  being  usually 
eaten  att  a  breakfast  att  his  house  in  London,  and  every 
taverne  full  of  his  meate :  and  any  who  had  acquaint- 
ance with  the  familie  might  have  as  much  sodden  and 
roost  as  hee  could  carrie  on  a  dagger,"* 

We  next  have  a  picture  of  "impious  Beaufort,  that 
false  priest,"  who  "limed  bushes  to  betray  the  wings" 
of  Humphrey  of  Gloucester : — 

"  Beaufort's  red  sparkling  eyes  blab  his  heart's  malice, 
And  Suffolk's  cloudy  brow  his  stormy  hate."^ 

This  Beaufort,  said  Ward,  was  the  great  Cardinal 
"  who  was  reported  to  say  on  his  deathbed,  '  Iff  all  Eng- 
land could  save  his  life,  he  was  able,  either  by  monie 
or  policie,  to  procure  itt.'"* 


*  Henry  F.,  prologfue,  11.  6,  13-14,  ^  Ward's  Diary y  p.  139. 

»  2  Henry  VI.,  ii.  4,  53-4 ;  iii.  i,  154-5. 


^^Ktng,  How  fares  my  Lord,  speak,  Beaufort,  to  thy  sovereign. 

*  Henry  F.,  prologue,  11 
»  2  Henry  F/.,  ii.  4,  53- 

*  Ward's  Diary ,  p.  177. 

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3i8    ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  SHAKESPEARE 

Cardinal.  If  thou  be'st  death,  Til  give  thee  England's  treasure. 
Enough  to  purchase  such  another  island, 
So  thou  wilt  let  me  live,  and  feel  no  pain."  ^ 

In  another  passage  he  discusses  the  policy  of  Arch- 
bishop Chichele,  who  was  accused,  perhaps  unjustly, 
of  having  promoted  war  with  France  in  order  to  stave 
off  an  attack  upon  the  Church.  The  opening  scene  in 
Henry  V.  explains  the  situation.  The  Commons  were 
eager  for  a  Bill,  which  had  already  passed  their  House 
in  *'the  Ignorant  Parliament": 

'Mf  it  pass  against  us, 
We  lose  the  better  half  of  our  possession." 

*'Thus  runs  the  bill,"  says  Canterbury,  and  ^'This 
would  drink  deep,"  says  Ely.  **  Twould  drink  the  cup 
and  all  I "  '*  But  what  prevention  ?  "  The  conversation 
must  be  supposed  to  take  place  in  the  second  year  of 
Henry's  reign,  Chichele  having  been  translated  from 
St.  David's  to  the  primacy  on  the  27th  of  April,  1414. 
He  explains  to  the  Bishop  of  Ely  that  young  Harry 
seems  indifferent,  or  rather  swaying  somewhat  towards 
the  Church : 

*'  I  have  made  an  offer  to  his  majesty  .  .  . 
Which  I  have  opened  to  his  grace  at  large, 
As  touching  France,  to  give  a  greater  sum 
Than  ever  at  one  time  the  clergy  yet 
Did  to  his  predecessors  part  withal." 

Harry  of  Monmouth,  he  maintains,  is  the  heir  of  Phara- 
mond  and  Charlemagne,  and  of  the  Lady  Ermengarde, 
from  whom  the  fair  Queen  Isabel,  otherwise  the  '^French 
she-wolf,"  derived  her  title,  the  heir  of  Pepin  and 
''  Bertha  Broadfoot,"  so  that,  as  the  learned  prelate  con- 
cludes in  the  next  scene : 

''  As  clear  as  is  the  summer's  sun, 
King  Pepin's  title  and  Hugh  Capet's  claim, 
King  Lewis  his  satisfaction,  all  appear 
To  hold  in  right  and  title  of  the  female."^ 

*  2  Henry  VI. j  iii.  3,  1-4.  *  Henry  V,,l  2,  86-9. 

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ARCHBISHOP  CHICHELE  319 

The  Bishop  of  Ely  makes  an  excellent  remark  about 
the  King's  virtues  having  been  hidden  under  the  veil 
of  wildness : 

"  The  strawberry  grows  underneath  the  nettle, 
And  wholesome  berries  thrive  and  ripen  best 
Neighboured  by  fruit  of  baser  quality  "  ; 

and  the  audience  would  naturally  be  pleased  with  the 
allusion  to  the  great  strawberry-banks,  the  safifron-beds, 
and  the  rose-thickets  of  Hatton  House. 

"  My  Lord  of  Ely,  when  I  was  last  in  Holborn, 
I  saw  good  strawberries  in  your  garden  there.  "^ 

Ward  remarks  with  some  acuteness  that  Henry  V.  was 
not  called  **his  majesty."  ''The  titles  of  kings  have 
much  alterd.  Grace  was  the  title  of  Henry  the  4th,  ex- 
cellent grace  of  Henry  the  6th,  and  majestie  of  Henry 
the  8th  ;  before,  they  were  usualy  calld  soveraigne  lord, 
leige  lord,  and  highnes."  * 

*' Archbishop  Chichly,"  he  says,  **  having  persuaded 
King  Henry  the  5th  to  a  warre  with  France,  built  a 
colledg  in  Oxon,  to  pray  for  the  souls  of  those  who 
were  killed  in  the  warres  of  France.  He  called  it  All 
soulls,  as  intended  to  pray  for  all,  but  more  especialy  for 
those  killed  in  the  warrs."  "  King  Henry  the  5th  .  .  . 
again  had  a  great  mind  to  the  clergie's  revenues  in 
England,  and  had  probably  effected  itt,  had  not  Chickley 
advisd  him  to  warrs  in  Fraunce."^ 

The  Vicar  has  left  us  a  very  interesting  account  of 
the  town  and  its  immediate  neighbourhood.  '*Wee 
are  ignorant,"  he  writes,  "  of  the  reason  of  the  names  of 

^  Henry  K,  i.  i,  60-2  ;  Richard  I  11,^  Hi.  4,  32-4.  The  Bishop  of  Ely 
in  Henry  V,  would  be  John  de  Fordham  (d.  1425) ;  in  Richard  ///.  John 
Morton,  afterwards  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  (d.  1500). 

'  Ward's DiaTy,  p.  311.  The  title  of  "majesty"  was  assumed  first 
in  Spain  by  Charles  V.  after  his  election  as  Emperor.  "  The  vanity  of 
other  courts  soon  led  them  to  imitate  the  example  of  the  Spanish" 
(Robertson,  Charles  V,f  bk.  i.  p.  116,  in  one  vol.  ed.).  In  Richard  11/., 
for  example,  Shakespeare  alternates  between  the  use  of  ** grace"  and 
"  majesty."  '^  Ward's  Diary ,  pp.  172,  31a 


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320    ILLUSTRATIONS   OF  SHAKESPEARE 

many  townes  and  places  in  England,  they  being  of 
Saxon  original ;  for  the  Romans  first,  and  the  Saxons 
afterwards,  did  without  doubt  give  names  to  most 
places."  ^  **  Stratford  is  so  called  from  a  street  passing^ 
over  a  ford."  *'  Avon  a  British  word,  aufona  with  them 
signifying  as  much  as  fluvius  with  us."  ''Arden  signifies 
a  woody  place,  and  was  so  used  by  the  Galls  and  the  old 
Britons."^  We  place  his  scattered  notes  in  some 
order  of  date.  *f  Stratford  superr  Avon  belonged  to  the 
Bishop  of  Worcester,  three  hundred  years  before  the 
conquest.  .  •  .  Our  church  is  of  auncient  structure, 
and  little  lesse  than  the  conqueror's  time.  Robert  de 
Stratford,  who  afterwards  was  bishop,  was  parson 
of  Stratford.  .  .  .  Our  Thursday  mercate  att  Stratford 
was  graunted  to  the  towne  in  King  Richard  the  First's 
time,  through  the  meanes  of  John  de  Constantiis,  Bishop 
of  Worcester.  ...  A  fair  procurd  for  Stratford  by 
Walter  de  Maydenstone,  made  Bishop  of  Worcester  in 
Edward  the  Second's  time,  which  should  last  fifteen 
days,  beginning  on  the  eve  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul. 
.  .  .  John  de  Chesterton,  a  lawyer  in  Edward  the 
Third's  time,  hadd  the  mannor  of  Stratford,  in  lease  of 
the  Bishop  of  Worcestor ;  but  in  the  third  of  Edward 
the  6,  Nicholas  Heath  passd  itt  to  John  Dudley,  Earl  of 
Warwick,  for  lands  in  Worcestershire.  Stratford  was 
made  a  corporation  in  the  seventh  of  Edward  the  sixth. 
In  the  eighteenth  of  Elizabeth,  the  mannor  was 
graunted  to  Ralph  Coningsby,  by  lease  for  twenty^ne 
years."* 

He  gives  Sir  Hugh  Clopton  the  credit  of  having 
built  the  transept,  or  "  north  and  south  crosse,"  of 
Stratford  Church.  He  has  a  notice  also  of  the  arms 
on  Sir  Hugh's  cenotaph  :  ''  Itt  was  a  usage  in  auncient 
time,  where  they  could  hitt  of  anything  that  sounded 
neer  or  like  their  names,  to  bear  itt  in  their  armes,  as 

*  /dL,  p.  291.  2  Id.,  pp.  185,  138,  147. 

»  Id,,  pp.  185-7. 


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THE  CLOPTONS  AND  ARDENS        321 

Clopton  hath  a  tunne."^  No  doubt  he  was  thinking 
of  Shakespeare  with  the  De  Mauley  falcon  and  lance, 
and  Lucy  with  his  fishes  hauriant ;  and  the  Cloptons 
might  have  given  him  an  example  from  Su£Polk,  where 
Mr.  Abel,  a  great  clothworker,  had  a  monument  in 
Nay  land  Church  :  ''and  to  signify  his  name,  as  also  to 
make  up  his  coat-armour,  the  letter  A.  and  the  picture 
of  a  bell  are  cast  upon  the  monument."' 

His  notice  of  the  old  Arden  stock  is  not  quite  in 
accordance  with  the  received  opinion.  Mr.  Hunter, 
for  instance,  taking  Edward  Arden's  execution  as  a 
starting-point,  gives  the  following  account  of  his  de- 
scendants. By  his  wife,  a  daughter  of  Sir  Robert 
Throckmorton,  he  had  three  daughters,  who  married 
into  the  great  Warwickshire  families  of  Devereux, 
Somerville,  and  Shuckborough ;  ''he  had  also  a  son, 
Robert  Arden,  who  recovered  Park -hall,  and  was 
living  there  in  162 1.  From  him  several  Ardens  de- 
scended ;  and  in  the  female  line  the  persons  are  in- 
numerable who  descend  from  these  Ardens."'  But  as  to 
the  male  line,  Mr.  Ward  only  says:  "The  last  of  the 
Ardens,  which  was  Robert,  dyed  at  Oxford,  unmarried, 
an.  1643."*  The  list  of  Warwickshire  gentlemen  on 
the  King's  side  printed  in  Symonds'  Diary  for  1645, 
contains  no  mention  of  any  Arden,  though  it  notices  Sir 
Richard  Shuckborough  and  Mr.  Devereux  of  Shustoke 
as  having  taken  an  active  part,  and  "Justice  Combes 
of  Stratford-upon-Avon,"  who  "sitts  at  home."^ 

^  /<^y  p.  140.  A  similar  case  in  point  is  the  tun  in  the  punning  coat-of- 
arms  of  Taunton.  On  p.  187  Ward  notes :  "Sir  John  Clopton's  sonne 
buried  in  the  vault  under  his  seat,  by  mee  on  Saturday  night,  Aug.  11, 
16661" 

^  There  is  now  no  monument  of  the  kind  remaining  at  Nayland — 
unless  one  of  the  brasses  whose  matrices  remain  in  the  floor  of  the 
church  may  have  displayed  this  coat 

•  Joseph  Hunter,  AVw  Illustrations  of  the  Life^  etc.,  of  Shakespeare y 
184s,  L  33-43.  *  Ward's  Diary,  p.  147. 

•  Symonds,  Diary  of  Marches  kept  by  the  Royal  Army  (Camden 
Society),  1859,  pp.  191-2.     "Shistock"  is  his  form  of  "Shustoke." 

V 


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322    ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  SHAKESPEARE 

Mr.  Ward's  account  of  the  Charlecote  family  is  for 
the  most  part  derived  from  Dugdale.  ^^The  Lucies 
are  descended  of  the  Montforts :  William  de  Lucy  was 
heir  to  Walter  de  Cherlcote.  •  .  •  The  Lucies  great 
lovers  of  horses  aunciently,  proved  by  one  of  them 
giving  forty  mark  to  a  London  merchant  for  one  in 
King  Edward  the  First's  time,  which  was  then  a  vast 
summe."  Sir  Thomas  Lucy  the  first  much  enlarged 
Charlecote  Park  **  by  the  addition  of  Hampton  Woods/'^ 
Of  Sir  Thomas  Lucy,  his  grandson,  we  hear  some- 
thing in  Howell's  correspondence.  He  was  supposed^ 
at  any  rate,  to  be  in  Venice,  and  received  jovial 
messages  from  friends  at  home;  ^^My  Lady  Miller 
commends  her  kindly  to  you,  and  she  desires  you  to 
send  her  a  compleat  Cupboard  of  the  best  Christal 
Glasses  Murano  can  aflFord  by  the  next  shipping ; 
besides  she  intreats  you  to  send  her  a  pot  of  the  best 
Mithridate,  and  so  much  of  Treacle.  .  .  .  Farewell, 
my  dear  7bm,  have  a  care  of  your  courses,  and  con- 
tinue to  love  him  who  is — Yours  to  the  Altar,  J.H."* 
Mithridate  and  Venice -treacle  were  supposed  to  be 
antidotes  to  all  kinds  of  poison ;  and  so  Love,  by 
Diella's  poet,  was  called  the  ^'Mithridate  to  overcome 
the  venom  of  disdain."* 

We  suppose  that  the  Vicar's  friend,  Mr.  Russell,^ 

'  was  the  son  or  near  relation  of  Mr.  Thomas  Russell, 

who  knew  the  poet  very  well  and  acted  as  supervisor 

of  his  will.    Mr.  Ward  has  one  or  two  anecdotes  about 

them  which  shows  that  they  belonged  to  the  celebrated 


^  Ward's  Diary ^  p.  187.  The  order  of  the  citations  is  slightly  altered. 
See  Dugdale,  Antiquities  of  Warwickshire^  ed.  Thomas,  17JO,  i.  502,  etc 
Ward  adds  to  the  words  '*  Hampton  Woods/'  the  note  "(Dugdale).*' 

^  Epp.  Ho-El.,  u,s.,  pp.  419-20  (ii.  let  27 :   Westm,,  is  Jon,  1635). 

'  R.  L.,  Diellaj  Sonnet  xiL  9-10,  in  Arber,  En^.  Gamer,  vii.  195.  So 
in  Taylor's  Pennyles  Pilgrimage,  1618 :  "  Mithridate,  that  vigrous  health 
preserves." 

^  Ward's  Diary,  p.  285 :  "Mr.  Russell  told  me  of  an  aundent  minister 
in  their  country,"  etc 


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THE   LUCIES  AND  THE   RUSSELLS    323 

west-country  stock*  ^^  I  have  heard  this  account  of 
the  rise  of  the  family  of  the  Russels.  About  the  time 
when  Philip,  King  of  Castile,  father  to  Charles  the 
Fifth,  was  forcd  by  foul  weather  into  the  harbour  of 
Weymouth,  Sir  Thomas  Trenchard  bountifully  enter- 
taind  this  royal  guest ;  and  Mr.  Russel,  a  gentleman 
or  esquire  of  Kingston  Russel,  in  the  countie  of 
Dorset,  who  had  travaild  beyond  seas,  and  was  much 
accomplisht  himself,  was  sent  for  to  compleat  the  enter- 
tainment. King  Philip  took  such  delight  in  his  com- 
panie,  that  when  hee  went  home,  hee  recommended 
him  to  Henry  the  7th,  as  a  person  of  abilities  to  stand 
before  princes.  King  Henry  the  8th  much  favoured 
him,  making  him  controller  of  his  house,  privy 
counseller,  and  made  him  Lord  Russel.  Edward 
the  6th,  (made  him)  Earl  of  Bedford.  Two  rich 
Abbeys,  Tavistock  and  Thome,  in  Cambridgeshire, 
fell  to  him  att  the  dissolution."^ 

There  are  other  entries  bearing  on  the  domestic 
aflEairs  of  Shakespeare's  family.  We  hear  of  a  Stratford 
tradesman  called  Thomas  Rogers,  a  relation  of  the 
Philip  Rogers  whom  Shakespeare  sued  for  debt  in  the 
Borough  Court'  He  left  two  sons,  Joseph  and 
Thomas;  and  when  administration  was  granted  to 
Thomas  Rogers  the  younger,  ^^  Joseph  was,  as  itt 
were,  distracted.  Witness  Goody  Hathaway  and  Mr. 
Burnet." »  This  **Good.wife"  is  thought  to  have 
been  Mrs.  Joan  Hathaway,  widow  of  Thomas  Hathaway 
of  Weston  and  afterwards  of  Stratford,  who  lived  as 
a  widow  in  a  shop  at  Chapel  Street  from  1655  to  her 
death  in  1696.  Her  death,  it  is  generally  agreed, 
^<  terminated  the  connection  of  the  poet's  Hathaways 
with  Stratford  and  its  neighbourhood."^    It  may  be 

^  Id,y   175.     Thome  is  usually  spelt  Thomey.     Wobum  also  was 
S^ranted  him  in  155a 
3  See  HalliweU-Phillipps,  Outlines,  iL  77-8. 
'  Ward's  Diary y  p.  187.  *  Halliwell-Philltpps,  op.  city  ii.  189. 


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324    ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  SHAKESPEARE 

mentioned)  however,  that  Mrs.  Baker,  while  in  charge 
of  the  "  Hathaway  Cottage,"  in  1866,  wrote  a  letter, 
in  the  writer's  possession,  in  which  she  claimed 
to  be  a  member  of  the  family.  **My  great-grand- 
mother," she  said,  ^^was  the  last  of  the  Hathaway 
name,  it  having  been  since  lost  by  marriage"  ;  and  she 
appears  to  have  been  under  the  impression  that  she 
might  be  described  as  being  in  some  sense  ^'a  descend- 
ant of  Anne  Hathaway." 

Mr.  William  Hart,  the  hatter,  who  married  Shake- 
speare's sister  Joan,  died  in  the  same  year  and  month 
as  the  poet ;  but  his  widow  lived  on  at  the  house  in 
Henley  Street,  next  to  the  Swan  Inn,  for  about  thirty 
years  afterwards.^  The  Vicar  has  something  to  say 
about  their  trade ;  and  it  seems,  indeed,  as  if  he  had 
been  ready  with  a  remark  before  every  window  and 
penthouse.  "  Hats,"  he  notes,  **  invented  since  the 
reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth."'  He  may  have  had  the 
Stratford  Register  in  mind,  where  the  epithet  "hatter" 
is  given  to  William  Hart  for  the  first  time  in  1605.'  He 
was  talking,  at  any  rate,  of  high  hats.  There  were 
hats  as  well  as  hosen,  we  suppose,  from  a  period  of 
remote  antiquity.  The  rustic  in  Lydgate's  London 
Lyckpeny  saw  hats  enough  near  Westminster  Hall, 

**  Where  flemynges  began  on  me  for  to  cry, 
Master,  what  will  you  copen  or  by? 
Fyne  felt  hatts,  or  spectacles  to  reede, 
Lay  down  your  sylver,  and  here  you  may  speede."* 

We  find  all  kinds  of  delicate  fine  hats  in  the  plays,  the 
"thrummed  hat,"^  the  rye-straw,^  the  "copatain,"  that 
went  with  velvet  hose  and  a  scarlet  cloak,^  besides 
the   pilgrim's  cockle  hat    as   shabby  as  his   clouted 

1  Id,,  i.  387.     She  died  in  1646.  >  Ward's  Diary,  pp.  296-7. 

'  Halliwell-PhiUipps,  op,  ciL,\\,  52. 

*  St.  vii.,  as  reprinted  in  Skeat's  Specimens  of  English  Literature^ 
i'J94-iST9'  '  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor,  iv.  2,  8a 

•  Tempest,  iv.  i,  136.  '  Taming  of  the  Shrew,  v.  i,  S^yo, 


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HATTERS  AND  BARBERS      325 

shoon.^  There  was  a  Statute  of  Hats  and  Caps  which 
prescribed  the  height  and  quality  of  the  head-gear  for 
the  various  grades  of  society ;  it  had  been  passed  in  the 
reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth  to  check  the  sudden  luxury  of 
the  steeple-like  and  bell-shaped  structures,  and  the 
threatened  collapse  of  square-caps  and  round-caps  and 
old  English  bonnets  of  blue.  '^  Round  knitt  caps  were 
the  ancient  mode,"  says  Mr.  Ward,  **  before  hatts  came 
upp,  and  a  capper  of  Bewdley  then  was  a  very  good 
trade."^ 

Before  the  barber's  shop  he  muses  on  **  crisped 
locks,"  and  tresses  that  live  ^^a  second  life  on  second 
head."'  The  poet  had  compared  dark  hair  to  wires, 
and  waving  curls  to  a  golden  mesh,  that  entrapped  the 
hearts  of  men  ** faster  than  gnats  in  cobwebs."* 
**Fair  hair,  as  the  poets  say,  is  the  prison  of  Cupid; 
that  is  the  cause,  I  suppose,"  the  Vicar  continues,  **the 
ladies  make  rings  and  brooches,  and  lovelocks  to  send 
to  their  lovers,  and  why  men  curl  and  powder  their 
hair,  and  prune  their  pickatevants."^  The  last  term  is 
taken  by  his  editor  as  referring  to  mustachios,  but  it  is 
more  likely  that  Ward  meant  the  pointed  beards,  peaked 
a  la  Pique-^ievant, 

He  had  something  to  say  about  the  tithes  which 
figure  so  largely  in  the  list  of  Shakespeare's  possessions. 
It  appears  that  they  might  have  been  abolished  under 
the  Commonwealth,  though  **  warranted  by  an  Act  of 
State  as  high  as  Oflfa's  time,"  had  it  not  been  for  the 
interference  of  Francis  Rouse.  '*  The  buisnes  of  tithes 
in  the  Protector's  time  being  once  hotly  agitated 
in  the  council,  Mr.  Rouse  stood  upp  and  bespake  them 
thus:  *  Gentlemen,'  says  he,  'I'll  tell  you  a  storie; 
being  travelling  in  Germany,  my  boot  in  a  place  being 

*  HamUty  iv.  5,  25.  *  Ward's  Diary^  p.  297. 

'  Merchant  of  Venice^  iii.  2  ;  Sonnet  Ixviii. 
^  Sonnet  cxxx. ;  Merchant  of  Venice^  u,s, 
■  Ward's  Diary,  p.  103. 


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326    ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  SHAKESPEARE 

torne,  I  staid  to  have  itt  mended,  and  then  came  to  mee 
a  very  ingenious  man  and  mended  itt;  I  staying  the 
Lord's  day  in  that  place,  saw  one  who  came  upp  to 
preach  who  was  very  like  the  man  who  mended  my 
boot ;  I  inquired  and  found  itt  was  he,  itt  grievd  mee 
much ;  they  told  me  they  had  tithes  formerly,  but  now 
being  taken  away,  the  minister  was  faine  to  take  any 
imployment  on  him  to  get  a  living.'  I  heard,"  said 
Ward,  ^'this  storie  turnd  the  Protector,  and  hee 
presently  cried  out,  *Well,  they  shall  never  mend 
shoes  while  I  live.' "  ^ 

*     Id,y    p.      121. 


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III.     DOWDALL,  AUBREY,  ETC. 
I 

DOWDALL'S    letter    to    SOUTHWELL,     1693— RODD'S    PREFACE 
— DOWDALL    AT    KINBTON— HIS    VISIT   TO   STRATFORD 

WE  shall  now  examine  the  statements  of  persons 
who  visited  Stratford  before  the  close  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  either  with  a  view  of  inspecting 
the  monuments  or  of  picking  up  anecdotes  about 
Shakespeare's  life.  We  shall  begin  with  the  account 
of  Stratford  given  by  a  barrister  named  Dowdall,  who 
visited  the  town  in  1693  on  his  way  to  the  Assizes  at 
Warwick.  Some  of  his  recollections  are  cited  by  Mr. 
Halliwell-Phillipps  under  the  heading  of  ^'Anecdotes 
respecting  Shakespeare,  from  a  little  manuscript  account 
of  places  in  Warwickshire  by  a  person  named  Dow- 
dall/'^and  the  whole  work  was  published  in  1838  by 
Mr.  Rodd,  ''the  learned  bookseller,"^  in  a  pamphlet 
entitled  Traditionary  Anecdotes  of  Shakespeare.  The 
manuscript  had  come  into  his  possession  about  four 
years  previously  at  the  sale  in  which  Lord  de  Cli£ford's 
papers  were  dispersed.  It  is  in  the  form  of  a  letter, 
dated  the  loth  of  April,  1693,  and  written  from  Butler's 
**  Merston,"'  **  which  is  eight  miles  from  Warwick,  six 
miles  from  Stratford-super-Avon,  and  one  mile  from 
Kineton,"  not  far  from  the  main  London  road,  which 

^  Halliwell-Phillipps,  Outlines^  iL  71-2  (being  No.  viL  of  the  extracts 
grouped  under  the  general  heading  of  "  Biographical  Notices  "). 

*  Thomas  Rodd  the  younger  (i  796-1 849),  who  carried  on  his  father's 
(d  1822)  business  from  1821.  The  pamphlet  is  so  small  that  references 
in  the  footnotes  would  be  superfluous.  '  Usually  "  Marston." 


337 


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328    ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  SHAKESPEARE 

led  to  Stratford  by  Kineton  Field  and  Edgehill.  '*  The 
Assize, "  says  the  writer,  *  *  begins  at  Warwick  to-morrow 
morning,  and  in  order  to  be  there  to  hear  the  charge 
&c.  from  Mr.  Justice  Clodpate,  viz.  Justice  Ne — 1,  my 
friend  and  I  ride  thither  this  afternoon ;  we  shall  stay 
there  till  thursday."  The  letter  has  no  formal  signature, 
but  ends  with  a  jocular  message  "  from  your  very  faith- 
full  Kinsman  and  most  aSte  humble  servt  till  death, 
John  at  Stiles."  It  is  addressed  to  the  writer's  cousin, 
Mr.  Edward  Southwell,  and  was  endorsed  by  him, 
'^From  Mr.  Dowdall,  Description  of  several  places  in 
Warwickshire." 

**  Brief  as  the  notice  of  the  poet  is,"  said  Mr.  Rodd 
in  his  interesting  preface,  **  it  is  nevertheless  of  great 
curiosity  and  importance,  since  it  appears  to  indicate 
the  source  of  much  of  the  information  which  has  been 
handed  down  to  us  by  Aubrey ;  and  to  point  out  one 
of  the  persons  who  have  invented,  or  perpetuated, 
the  few  anecdotes  of  his  early  life  that  have  reached  us." 
He  quotes  Malone  for  the  statement  that  Aubrey  col- 
lected his  materials  about  1680,  and  adds  that,  from  the 
coincidences  in  the  two  sets  of  anecdotes,  there  can  be 
no  doubt  that  both  received  them  from  the  clerk  who  is 
mentioned  in  the  letter.  He  expresses  his  own  opinion 
that  the  reports  of  **the  vagrant  tenor"  of  the  poet's 
youth  are  no  more  entitled  to  credit  than  the  later 
fables  which  have  been  thrust  into  the  biographies. 
**The  most  monstrous  conjectures  respecting  him,"  he 
complains,  **  have  been  boldly  advanced,  many  of  them 
at  total  variance  with  each  other."  He  quotes  the  old 
poaching  story  as  an  example  of  the  effect  produced 
by  naming  a  well-known  locality  as  the  scene  of  a 
legendary  occurrence.  A  visit  to  the  supposed  place 
of  an  imaginary  event  '*  hallows  the  deception,"  till 
even  the  most  incredulous  yield  to  the  delusion.  When 
Malone,  he  says,  proved  that  there  was  no  park  at 
Charlecote,  **the  Lucys  .  .  .  shifted  the  locality,"  being 


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THOMAS  RODD  ON   SHAKESPEARE    329 

determined  not  to  lose  the  honour  of  being  robbed 
by  Shakespeare.  An  amusing  illustration  is  added 
from  the  Life  of  Sir  Walter  Scott.  The  incident  is 
taken  from  a  letter  written  by  Miss  Scott  to  Mrs. 
Lockhart  from  Carlisle.  **We  went  to  the  Castle, 
where  a  new  showman  went  through  the  old  trick 
of  pointing  out  Fergus  Maclvor's  vety  dungeon. 
Peveril  said — *  Indeed — are  you  quite  sure,  sir?'  And 
on  being  told  there  could  be  no  doubt,  was  troubled 
with  a  fit  of  coughing,  which  ended  in  a  laugh.  The 
man  seemed  exceeding  indignant :  so  when  papa 
moved  on,  I  whispered  who  it  was.  I  wish  you  had 
seen  the  man's  start,  and  how  he  stared  and  bowed 
as  he  parted  from  us ;  and  then  rammed  his  keys  into 
his  pocket  and  went  off  at  a  hand-gallop  to  warn  the 
rest  of  the  garrison.  But  the  carriage  was  ready,  and 
we  escaped  a  row."^  Mr.  Rodd  next  referred  to  the 
absurd  suggestion  that  the  *' well-made  and  graceful" 
Shakespeare  was  lame  of  one  leg,  because  in  the  thirty- 
seventh  Sonnet  he  compared  himself  to  a  decrepit  father, 
and  complained  of  being  **made  lame  by  fortune's 
dearest  spite  "  ;  while,  of  course,  no  attention  is  paid  to 
the  other  half  of  the  metaphor : — 

"  So  then  I  am  not  lame,  poor,  nor  despised, 
Whilst  that  this  shadow  doth  such  substance  give 
That  I  in  thy  abundance  am  sufficed 
And  by  a  part  of  all  thy  glory  live." 

In  his  Macbeth  again,  and  in  Henry  VII L^  he  has 
left  us,  says  Mr.  Rodd,  complete  evidence  of  his  being 
a  Protestant;  **yet,  because  there  are  in  his  Hamlet 
some  allusions  to  the  rites  of  the  Roman  church,  he 
has  been  set  down  as  a  Catholic."  The  reference  is  to 
Ophelia's  **  maimed  rites,"  and  the  death  of  Hamlet's 
father  ^'unhousel'd,  disappointed,  unaneled";^  but  it 

^  Lockhart,  Life  of  Scott^  i  vol.  ed.,  1845,  pp.  687-8. 
*  Hamlet,  v.  i,  242  ;  i.  5,  77. 


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330    ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  SHAKESPEARE 

should  have  been  stated  that  there  is  a  definite  asser- 
tion by  the  Rev.  Richard  DavieSi  made  at  some  time 
before  1708,  that  Shakespeare  '^died  a  papist"^ 
Nothing,  however,  has  been  adduced  that  is  worthy  of 
the  name  of  evidence,  and  the  statement  may  now  be 
disregarded.  ''It  would  appear,"  says  Mr.  Rodd, 
**from  the  practice  of  some  recent  writers,  that  where 
the  great  dramatist  is  the  subject,  each  conceives  him- 
self at  liberty  to  add  whatever  his  fancy  may  dictate  to 
those  already  apocryphal  accounts  of  him  " ;  and  as  a 
climax  he  points  out  that  someone  had  the  hardihood  to 
doubt  the  poet's  identity,  "  having  laboured  to  prove 
that  he  was  one  and  the  same  person  with  Christopher 
Marlowe ! " 

In  reading  the  young  barrister's  sprightly  effusion  one 
must  regret  that  he  only  cast  a  glance  towards  ''our 
English  tragedian,"  though  he  was  rapt  in  admiration 
of  the  Beauchamp  tombs  at  Warwick,  being  to  his 
mind  such  a  fair  and  stately  assembly  "  which  •  •  • 
will  afford  matter  enough  to  feed  the  most  hungry  pen 
in  Europe  for  a  considerable  time."  He  rebukes  his 
dear  cousin  for  the  brevity  of  his  news  from  home. 
"But  'tis  folly  to  expect  a  fee-farm  of  joys  in  this 
world ;  we  must  down  on  our  marrow-bones,  and  thank 
heaven  for  affording  us  one  single  glance.  This  epistle 
(I  suppose)  you  may  justly  call  Mr.  D — U's  travels  into 
Warwickshire,  for  herein  you  shall  have  such  par- 
ticulars as  I  can  at  present  call  to  mind,  and  by  this 
prolix  relation  I  shall  partly  (tho'  not  designedly)  re- 
venge the  brevity  of  yours.  On  Friday,  the  loth  of 
March  last,  I  set  out  from  London,  and  lay  that  night 
at  Aylesbury.  The  next  day  I  came  hither  to  Butler's- 
Merston."  He  then  proceeds  to  describe  his  friend's 
ancient  mansion  with  its  demesnes,  the  noble  fishponds 
and  great  dovehouse,  "and  in  the  stables  there  be  as 

^  Printed  in  HalUwell-Phillipps,  op,  ciLyiu  71.  See  full  discussion, 
id.y  u  263-6,  and  supra^  pp.  40-1. 


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WARWICK  GENTLEMEN  AT  KINETON    331 

stately  a  number  of  horses  as  a  man  can  wish  or  desire 
to  ride  on/'^ 

**  Having  come  so  far,  I  may  now  venture  to  inform 
you  of  our  advances  abroad ;  and  in  order  to  that,  I 
must  acquaint  you  first  that  there  is  a  knott  in  these 
parts  that  meet  at  Kineton  every  Saturday  in  the  after- 
noon, who  are  one  and  All^  of  which  number  my  friend 
is  one ;  and  they  are  as  true  and  sincere  as  they  are 
generous  and  hospitable."  This  looks  like  a  reference 
to  the  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor: 

''Shallow,  etc.  Well  met,  Master  Ford. 
''Ford.  Trust  me,  a  good  knot:    I  have  good  cheer  at 
home,  and  I  pray  you  all  go  with  me." 

Then  Ford  becomes  afraid  that  some  tough  knot  might 
be  knit,  "sl  knot,  a  ging,  a  pack,  a  conspiracy,'^  against 
him ;  *  and  we  find  something  like  it  in  Mr.  Pepys' 
Diary ^  when  he  notes  that  ''all  do  conclude  Mr. 
Coventry,  and  Pett,  and  me,  to  be  of  a  knot ;  and  that 
we  do  now  carry  all  things  before  us."^ 

The  chief  person  in  the  Warwickshire  society  was 
Mr.  Charles  Newsham  of  Chadshunt,*  a  good  scholar 
and  historian,  **a  great  admirer  of  your  Royal-Society- 
learning,  but  not  to  be  infatuated  with  the  itch  of  experi- 
mental discoveries,  &c."  Next  came  his  son-in-law, 
Mr,  Peeres,  who  lived  at  his  manor  of  Alveston  on  the 
Avon.^  ''Another  of  the  fraternity  is  Justice  Bentley, 
an  honest  true-hearted  gentleman,"  living  at  Kineton. 

*  **  The  Manor  House  has  belonged  to  descendants  of  the  Woodward 
family  since  the  time  of  Queen  Mary.  Richard  Woodward  and  his 
brother,  who  supported  King  Charles,  were  both  slain  at  the  battle  of 
Ed£^  Hill." — Murray's  Warwickshire^  p.  105. 

*  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor,  iii.  2,  51-3;  iv.  2,  123. 

'  16  Dec  1662,  in  Diary,  ed.  Braybrooke,  3rd  ed.,  1848,  ii.  79. 

*  A  mile  and  a  half  N.N.E  of  Kineton.  "Chadshunt  House  was 
formerly  the  seat  of  the  Newsham  family,  in  the  park  is  the  well  of  St 
Chad,  in  which  pilgrims  used  to  bathe,"  etc  Murray's  Warwickshire, 
p.  104. 

*  Two  miles  N.E.  of  Stratford,  close  to  the  road  from  Kineton. 


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332    ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  SHAKESPEARE 

Mr.  Loggins  of  Butler's  -  Marstoiii  was  the  fourth: 
'^  excellent  company,  and  keeps  as  excellent  cyder.'* 
From  all  these  gentlemen  Mr.  Dowdall  received  oblig- 
ing civilities ;  ^'and,  as  a  mark  of  their  kindness  and 
esteem,  they  have  admitted  me  of  their  society.  •  .  . 
Now  I  proceed  to  inform  you  what  antiquities  I  have 
observed,  and  now  and  then,  if  I  should  prove  tedious 
by  telling  stories  relating  to  these  matters,  you  will,  I 
hope,  excuse  it,  for  'tis  what  I  thought  worthy  my 
remembrance,  and  by  consequence  my  friends.  The 
first  remarkable  place  in  this  county  that  I  visited,  was 
Stratford-super-'Avon,  where  I  saw  the  effigies  of  our 
English  tragedian,  Mr.  Shakespeare :  part  of  his 
epitaph  I  sent  Mr.  Lowther,  and  desired  he  would 
impart  it  to  you,  which  I  find  by  his  last  letter  he  has 
done;  but  here  I  send  you  the  whole  inscription. 
Just  under  his  effigies  in  the  wall  of  the  chancell 
is  this  written.  Judicio  Pylium  &c."^  The  visitor 
does  not  describe  the  "effigies."  "Near  the  wall," 
continued  Mr.  Dowdall,  "where  his  monument  is 
erected,  lieth  a  plain  freestone,  underneath  which  his 
body  is  buried,  with  his  epitaph  made  by  himself  a  little 
before  his  death : — 

'* '  Good  friend,  for  Jesus  sake  forbear 
To  dig  the  dust  enclosed  here. 
Blest  be  the  man  that  spares  these  stones, 
And  curst  be  he  that  moves  my  bones.' 

"The  clerk  that  showed  me  this  church  was  above 
eighty  years  old.  He  says  that  this  Shakespeare  was 
formerly  in  this  town  bound  apprentice  to  a  butcher, 
but  that  he  ran  from  his  master  to  London,  and  there 
was  received  into  the  playhouse  as  a  servitour,  and  by 
this  means  had  an  opportunity  to  be  what  he  afterwards 
proved.     He  was  the  best  of  his  family ;  but  the  male 

*  Halliwell-PhilUpps  printed  "  Pylum,"  and  the  sentence  "Just  .  .  . 
written."  Rodd  probably  altered  the  error,  but  omitted  to  transcribe  the 
sentence. 


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THE   STRJWTFORD  TOMBS  333 

line  is  extinguished.  Not  one,  for  fear  of  the  curse 
above  said,  dare  touch  his  grave-stone,  tho'  his  wife 
and  daughters  did  earnestly  desire  to  be  laid  in  the 
same  grave  with  him."  The  Parish-books  show  that 
one  William  Castle,  born  in  1628,  was  clerk  and  sexton 
at  the  time  of  Mr.  Dowdall's  visit,  and  throughout  all 
the  latter  part  of  the  century.  It  has  been  frequently 
assumed  that  it  was  he  who  gave  the  curious  informa- 
tion about  the  poet  and  his  family ;  but  it  is  very  unlikely 
that  a  clever  young  barrister  should  have  taken  a  person 
of  about  sixty-five  for  a  man  **  above  eighty  years  old," 
more  especially  as  on  that  theory  he  would  have  been 
talking  to  one  who  was  born  in  Shakespeare's  lifetime. 
The  visitor  made  no  special  remark  upon  Mr.  John 
Combe's  tomb,  which  is  generally  admired  as  Gerard 
Johnson's  best  piece  of  work ;  he  merely  said  that  there 
were  some  fine  monuments,  including  one  in  memory 
of  George  Carew,  Lord  Carew  of  Clopton,  created 
Earl  of  Totnes  in  1626.^  He  was  '^  a  considerable  man 
in  Ireland  in  the  time  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  and  also 
in  the  time  of  King  James,  both  there  and  in  England. 
He  died  tempor.  Car  i.  His  brave  actions  and  titles 
of  honour  are  here  upon  his  monument  enumerated, 
which  are  too  tedious  to  be  here  inserted.  There  is 
also  the  monument  of  the  Cloptons  here,  who  are  an 
ancient  family  :  there  are  some  of  them  still  remaining 
in  this  town." 

^  In  1605  he  had  been  created  Baron  Carew  of  Clopton  House.  The 
date  of  his  death  on  the  monument  is  27  March  1629.  He  married  Joyce, 
daughter  and  heiress  of  William  Clopton  and  Anne  his  wife.  His  father 
was  Georg-e  Carew,  Dean  of  Exeter  (d.  1583). 


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334    ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  SHAKESPEARE 


II 

DOWDALL'S   visit  to   WARWICK — ^THB   BEAUCHAMPS   AND 
NEVILLES   IN   SHAKESPEARE — THE   GREVILLES 

"  I  shan't  trouble  you  any  more  in  this  place,"  Dow- 
dall  continues,  ''but  my  next  stage  shall  be  to  the 
Church  of  Warwicke."  He  begins  his  description  of 
that  church  with  an  account  of  Thomas  Beauchamp, 
Earl  of  Warwick,  who  fought  at  Crecy  and  Poitiers, 
and  of  his  son  Thomas,  the  thirteenth  Earl,  whose 
honours  were  forfeited  under  Richard  II.,  but  restored 
when  the  new  reign  began.  ''  I  made  my  next  step  to 
the  monument  of  Richard  Beauchamp,  Earl  of  Warwick, 
son  to  the  last  mentioned  Earl  Thomas:  he  died  at 
Roan,^  anno  1439,  and  lies  buried  in  a  vault  here ;  in 
memory  of  whom  stands  the  noblest  monument  that 
ever  my  eyes  beheld ;  'tis  in  my  judgment,  much 
beyond  Henry  the  seventh's.  His  statue  in  brass, 
double  gilt,  is  the  most  exact  and  lively  representation 
that  hitherto  I  ere  met  with."  Then  follows  the  in- 
scription, showing  how  the  said  ''  Richard  Beauchamp, 
late  Earl  of  Warwicke,  Lord  Despenser  of  Bergavenny, 
and  of  mony  greate  other  Lordships,"  died  in  1439, 
''  he  being  at  the  time  Lieutenant  Generall  and  Govern- 
our  of  the  Roialme  of  France  and  of  the  Dutchy 
of  Normandy  by  sufiScient  authority  of  our  soveraign 
lord  the  King  Harry  the  VI."  Round  the  main  eSigy 
were  fourteen  statues  of  gilt  copper  representing  the 
great  man's  kindred.  **To  recount  the  many  noble 
exploits  of  this  man  would  require  a  treatise  of  itself — 
nay,  the  stories  of  him  which  still  continue  fresh  in 
this  town  of  Warwick  would  be  very  tedious,"  says 
Mr.  Dowdall.  The  autobiography  of  Thomas  Hearne 
the  antiquary  shows  that  there  was  such  a  separate 

^  i,e.  Rouen. 


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BEAUCHAMP  MONUMENTS  335 

treatise,  and  gives  a  clue  to  the  source  of  the  traditions 
current  in  Warwick,  It  was  compiled  by  John  Ross 
the  Hermit,  who  wrote  the  history  of  Warwick  Castle, 
and  is  catalogued  by  Hearne  among  the  works  which 
he  had  edited  as  ''The  contents  or  Arguments  of  John 
Ross's  book  (in  the  Cottonian  Library)  of  the  story 
of  Richard  Beauchamp,  Earl  of  Warwick.  From  a 
MS.  of  Sir  William  Dugdale  in  Museo  Ashmol.  Oxon. 
pag.  359."^  Might  we  not  presume  that  Shakespeare 
would  be  familiar  with  the  history  of  the  Beauchamp 
line,  and  made  some  reference  to  all  these  local  glories  ? 
Perhaps,  indeed,  this  may  be  the  origin  of  his 
''brass  eternal"  and  the  "tombs  of  brass"  in  the 
sonnets,^  and  the  opening  words  of  Love's  Labour^s 
Lost: — 

"  Let  fame,  that  all  hunt  after  in  their  lives, 
Live  registered  upon  our  brazen  tombs, 
And  then  grace  us  in  the  disgrace  of  death."  ^ 

But  on  turning  to  the  historical  plays  the  great 
Earl's  portraiture  is  found  to  be  strangely  distorted. 
Let  us  take  the  first  part  of  Henry  VL  The  scene 
in  the  Temple  Garden  is  ascribed  by  most  competent 
critics  to  Shakespeare,*  though  many  other  passages 
may  have  been  written  by  Marlowe  or  another.  Its 
date  is  fixed,  by  the  entry  of  Edmund  Mortimer,  to  some 
time  between  Henry  the  Sixth's  accession  in  1422  and 

*  The  Life  of  Mr*  Thomas  Hearne  .  .  .  from  his  own  MS.  copy,  1762, 
p.  100,  in  appendix  relating  to  his  edition  of  the  Monk  of  Eveshan's 
History.  No.  i  of  the  same  series  of  appendices  describes  his  own  edition 
of  **  John  Ross's  historical  account  of  the  Earle  of  Warwick,  from  an 
eminent  MS.  in  the  hands  of  Tho.  Ward,  of  Warwick,  Esqr.,  p.  217." 

^  Sonnets  Ixv.,  cvii.  ;  also  Iv.,  <'the  gilded  monuments  of  princes"; 
d,  "a  gilded  tomb."  The  phrase  in  Hamlet^  i.  4,  48-50  (quoted  below, 
p.  343)>  is  admirably  descriptive  of  many  contemporary  monuments  that 
Shakespeare  must  have  seen,  €,g,  William  Clopton's  tomb  at  Stratford  or 
the  Hunsdon  tomb  in  Westminster  Abbey — both  erected  about  1596, 
before  the  date  oi  Hamlet, 

^  Love's  Labour's  Losty  i.  x,  1-3. 

^  e,g.  Dr.  Fumivall  and  Dr.  A.  W.  Ward  (a  cautious  assent). 


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336    ILLUSTRATIONS   OF  SHAKESPEARE 

Mortimer's  death  in  1425,  and  the  '^Warwick"  of  that 
time  was,  therefore,  the  high  and  puissant  Prince  who 
died  at  Rouen  and  was  laid  at  Warwick  ^Mn  a  fair  chest 
of  stone. "^  He  was  standing  in  the  garden  when  the 
debate  between  Plantagenet  and  Somerset  began. 
"Judge  you,  my  Lord  of  Warwick,  then  between  us." 
As  we  all  know,  he  plucked  the  White  Rose  of  York, 
loving  no  colours,  as  he  said,  and  showing  no  "colour 
of  flattery."  But  what  a  picture  he  draws  of  his  own 
position  and  character.  His  mind  is  given  up  to  hawks 
and  hounds.  He  can  judge  between  a  couple  of  Toledos 
"  which  bears  the  better  temper"  : 

•*  Between  two  horses,  which  doth  bear  him  best ; 
Between  two  girls,  which  hath  the  merriest  eye  ; 
I  have,  perhaps,  some  shallow  spirit  of  judgment. 
But,  in  these  nice  sharp  quillets  of  the  law, 
Good  faith,  I  am  no  wiser  than  a  daw."^ 

The  great  Earl  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Henry,  Earl 
and  Duke  of  Warwick,  crowned  "King  of  the  Isle  of 
Wight"  shortly  before  his  death  in  1445.  His  sister, 
Anne  Beauchamp,  was  permitted  to  carry  the  earldom 
with  her  on  her  marriage  with  Richard  Neville,  eldest 
son  of  the  Earl  of  Salisbury ;  ^  he  was  Earl  of  Salis- 
bury himself  before  he  died  at  Barnet,  but  will  always 
be  best  remembered  as  Warwick  the  Kingmaker. 

The  second  part  of  Henry  VI.  confuses  the  valiant 
Beauchamp  with  his  son-in-law,  the  more  popular  hero. 
Beauchamp  had  helped  to  conquer  Anjou  and  Maine 
and  our  other  possessions  in  France.     But  the  credit 

^  Richard  Beauchamp  had  succeeded  to  the  earldom  on  the  death 
of  his  father  in  1401.  ^  i  Henry  F/.,  ii.  4. 

'  Dugdale,  Ant  War.y  ed.  Thomas,  1730,  i.  414-15.  The  widow  of 
Earl  Richard,  Isabelle  le  Despenser,  who  died  27th  Dec,  1439,  ^^^ 
buried  in  Tewkesbury  Abbey,  where,  in  1422,  she  had  erected  the  beau- 
tiful chantry-chapel  to  the  memory  of  her  first  husband,  the  Earl  of 
Aberg'avenny  and  Worcester — another  Richard  Beauchamp,  and  cousin 
to  her  second  husband.  Hence  the  Earl  of  Warwick's  tiUe,  u,s.,  **  Lord 
Despenser  of  Bergavenny." 


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THE  EARLS  OF  WARWICK  337 

of  his  actions  is  claimed  for  his  successor,   Richard 
Neville,  when  the  provinces  were  yielded  up  in  1445  : 

**  Anjou  and  Maine  !  myself  did  win  them  both  ; 
Those  provinces  these  arms  of  mine  did  conquer  : 
And  are  the  cities  that  I  got  with  wounds, 
Delivered  up  again  with  peaceful  words  ? 
MortDieu!"! 

Even  if  we  go  back  to  the  times  before  Agincourt,  we 
find  the  same  confusion.  There  is  a  ^* Warwick"  in 
the  second  part  of  Henry  IV.  He  is,  of  course,  no 
other  than  the  great  Earl  entombed  among  the  double- 
gilt  statues.  But  the  King  is  made  nevertheless  to 
call  him  **  Cousin  Nevil,"  as  if  he  must  have  belonged 
to  the  blood  of  **the  setter-up  and  plucker-down  of 
Kings."*  Mr.  Dowdall  evidently  followed  all  the 
lineal  changes  with  interest.  ''There  be  severall  other 
large  and  fine  monuments  belonging  to  the  family  of 
the  Nevilles,  that  after  the  Beauchamps  came  to  be 
Earls  of  Warwick,  and  also  many  noble  monuments 
in  memory  of  the  family  of  the  Dudleys,  who  were 
Earls  of  Warwick  after  the  extinguishment  of  the 
Nevilles." 

''Besides  this,  there  is  the  monument  of  Sir  Foulke 
Greville,  which,  as  I  am  informed  by  the  learned  in 
the  orders  of  building,  is  for  its  architecture  inferior  to 
none  in  the  kingdom.  The  epitaph  on  the  tomb  is  in  my 
mind  worth  your  knowing,  which  is  this,  viz  : — '  Fulke 
Grevil,  servant  to  Queene  Elizabeth,  Councellour  to 
King  James,  and  Friend  to  Sr  Phillip  Sidney  :  Tropfueum 
peccati:*  Now  I  will  bid  adieu  to  monuments  and  cast 
my  eye  on  Kenilworth."  The  same  thought  appears 
in  the  title  of  the  biography,  "The  Life  of  the  re- 
nowned Sir  Philip  Sidney.  With  the  true  interest  of 
England,  &c:  Written  by  Sir  Fulke  Grevil,  knight, 
lord   Brook,   a  servant  to  Queen  Elisabeth,  and  his 

*  2  Henry  VI,,  u  i,  119-23.  *  2  Henry  IV.,  iii.  i,  66. 


Z 


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338    ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  SHAKESPEARE 

companion  and  friend."^  Lord  Brooke  died  in  1628, 
and  was  succeeded  by  his  cousin,  Robert  Grevillc,  who 
was  killed  at  Lichfield  in  1643,  upon  St.  Chad's  Day, 
by  a  shot  from  a  deaf  and  dumb  boy  among  the  de- 
fenders of  St.  Chad's  Cathedral.^  Lord  Brooke,  says 
Aubrey,  '*was  armed  cap  a  pied;  only  his  bever  was 
open.  I  was  then  at  Trinity  College  in  Oxon.  and  doe 
perfectly  rememcmber  the  story."'  The  first  Lord 
Brooke  has  earned  a  title  for  devoted  friendship,  as 
Eusebius  was  content  to  take  the  name  ''  Pamphili,"  as 
the  friend  of  his  master,  St.  Pamphilus.  But  Aubrey, 
who  loved  the  memory  of  Lord  Bacon,  has  left  a  bitter 
paragraph  about  Greville,  which  cannot  properly  be 
omitted. 

**  In  his  lordship's  prosperity.  Sir  Fulke  Grevil,  lord 
Brookes  {sic)  was  his  great  friend  and  acquaintance ; 
but  when  he  (Bacon)  was  in  disgrace  and  want,  he  was 
so  unworthy  as  to  forbid  his  butler  to  let  him  have  any 
more  small  beer,  which  he  had  often  sent  for,  his 
stomach  being  nice,  and  the  small  beere  of  Grayes 
Inne  not  liking  his  pallet.  This  has  donne  his  memory 
more  dishonour  then  Sir  Philip  Sydney's  friendship 
engraven  on  his  monument  hath  donne  him  honour."^ 

^  Published  in  1652.     Title  in  Aubrey,  Brief  Lives ,  ccL  Clark,  L  275. 

^  There  is  a  gfood  account  of  the  leg-end  of  Lord  Brooke's  death  at 
the  hands  of  "Dumb  Dyott"  in  Mr.  A.  B.  Clifton's  Cathedral  Church 
of  Lichfield f  1898,  pp.  12-15.  '^^^  ^^^^  ^^^  ^^  ^^  ^^^^  h^en  fired  from 
the  central  tower,  the  spire  of  which  was  destroyed  in  the  ensuing  siege. 
Lord  Brooke  took  Stratford-upon-Avon  before  his  death. 

'  Aubrey,  op,  cit, ,  i.  275,  suh  Greville. 

*  Id,  J  i.  67,  sub  Francis  Bacon.  Aubrey's  citation  of  authorities  which 
he  intended  to  verify  some  day  is  very  characteristic  "  Vide  .  .  .  History, 
and  (I  thinke)  Sir  Anthony  Weldon." 


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HALL'S   LETTER  TO  THWAITES       339 
III 

WILLIAM   hall's   LETTER   TO  EDWARD  THWAITES,    1694 

Mr.  Dowdall's  account  of  his  visit  should  be  read  in 
connection  with  the  letter  by  William  Hall  found  at  the 
Bodleian  in  1884  ^"^  published  in  the  papers  of  June 
the  24th  in  that  year  ;  a  copy  was  also  printed  by  Mr. 
Halliwell-Phillipps.^  William  Hall  was  a  young  gradu- 
ate of  Queen's  College,  Oxford,  and  his  letter  was 
addressed  to  his  friend,  Edward  Thwaites,  who  was 
already  a  Fellow  of  that  College.  It  must  have  been 
written  after  the  end  of  the  autumn  term,  or  about 
Christmas,  in  the  year  1694,  the  date  being  approxi- 
mately fixed  by  a  reference  to  a  promised  list  of  StafiFord- 
shire  words,  which  duly  arrived  in  Oxford  on  the  2nd 
of  January.  Mr.  Thwaites  was  a  great  philologist.  He 
lectured  on  Anglo-Saxon  and  helped  Hickes  in  his 
Treasury  of  the  Northern  Languages;  **  a  very  beautiful 
transcript  of  Somner's  (Anglo-Saxon)  Dictionary,  with 
Thwaites'  additions,  is  now  among  the  Ballard  MSS. 
in  the  Bodleian,  written  by  himself  with  the  greatest 
accuracy  and  neatness."^  He  was  beloved  by  all  his 
contemporaries.  Mr.  Brome,  in  writing  to  Ballard, 
gives  us  an  anecdote  about  him  on  the  authority  of 
Dr.  Bernard,  who  was  a  great  book  collector,  as  well 
as  being  Serjeant-Surgeon  to  Queen  Anne.  "Mr. 
Thwaites  I  was  most  intimately  acquainted  with  and 
have  by  me  several  of  his  letters.    He  was  certainly  one 

^  Shakespeare's  Grave,  Notes  of  Traditions  that  were  current  at 
Strat/ifrd-on^Avon  in  the  latter  part  of  the  Seventeenth  Century ,  privately 
printed,  1884. 

^  Thwaites'  various  accomplishments  are  recorded  in  Diet,  Nat,  Bicg,^ 
vol.  Ivi.  In  1698  he  became  Fellow  and  '*  Angflo-Saxon  Preceptor "  of 
Queen's  College;  it  was  during  this  period  that  Hickes'  Treasury 
appeared  (1703-5).  In  1708  he  became  Regius  Professor  of  Greek  and 
Whyte's  Professor  of  Moral  Philosophy.     He  died  at  IfBey  in  171 1. 


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340    ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  SHAKESPEARE 

of  the  greatest  geniuses  of  the  age :  much  a  gentleman, 
a  good-natured  man.  His  patience  and  magnanimity 
in  his  sufferings  from  lameness  was  beyond  compare : 
so  great  that  it  was  not  impertinent  in  Serjeant  Bernard, 
his  surgeon,  to  acquaint  Queen  Anne  therewith,  who 
ordered  him  ;f  lOO,  and  made  him  Greek  Professor  in 
Oxford."  Some  say  that  the  Queen  gave  double  that 
amount. 

His  friend,  William  Hall,  was  the  son  of  an  inn* 
keeper  at  Lichfield.  He  was  educated  at  the  Cathedral 
Grammar  School,  and  at  the  age  of  seventeen  was 
nominated  one  of  the  Batlers,  or  servitors,  at  Queen's 
College.  His  friend  Thwaites  had  been  a  Batler,  one 
of  these  Pueri  Pauperes^  at  St.  Edmund's  Hall ; 
Humphrey  Wanley,^  the  Earl  of  Oxford's  learned 
librarian,  occupied  the  same  position  ;  and  we  read 
in  Hearne's  autobiography  how  his  patron,  Mr.  Cherry, 
had  him  entered  as  **a  Battelar  of  Edmund-Hall,"  in 
Michaelmas  Term,  1695.*  The  word  is,  of  course, 
derived  from  the  ''battels,"  or  rations,  from  the  buttery- 
hatch  ;  at  Cambridge  they  are  called  '*sizings,"  which 
Ray  derived  from  ''size,"  a  cant  word  for  half  a  loaf. 
In  the  diverting  play  of  The  Puritan^  so  long  ascribed 
to  Shakespeare,  an  adventurer  is  made  to  say :  "  I  am 
a  poor  gentleman,  and  a  scholar ;  I  have  been  matricu- 
lated in  the  university,  wore  out  six  gowns  there 
.  .  .  went  bareheaded  over  the  quadrangle,  ate  my 
commons  with  a  good  stomach,  and  battled  with  dis- 
cretion."* Shakespeare  really  used  the  Cambridge 
phrase,  as  might  be  expected  from  the  friend  of  Frank 
Beaumont  and  "Jack  Fletcher":  "No,  Regan,"  says 
King  Lear, 

"  Thy  tender-hefted  nature  shall  not  give 
Thee  o'er  to  harshness  .  .  . 

*  1672-1726.  *  Life  of  Mr.  Thomas  Heame,  u,s.,  p.  4. 

3  The  Puritan,  I  2  (Supplementary  Works  of  Shakespeare,  ed.  W. 
HazUU,  1853). 


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WILLIAM  HALL  OF  LICHFIELD        341 

*Tis  not  in  thee 
To  grudge  my  pleasures,  to  cut  off  my  train, 
To  bandy  hasty  words,  to  scant  my  sizes."  ^ 

Mr.  Hall  matriculated  in  i6go,  and  "put  on  his  gown" 
in  October,  1694.  ^^^  letter  to  Thwaites  was  written  a 
few  weeks  later  from  the  **  White  Hart,"  at  Lichfield, 
kept  by  his  father,  Mr.  William  Hall,  the  vintner. 
"Dear  Neddy,"  he  begins,  "  I  very  greedily  embrace 
this  occasion  of  acquainting  you  with  something  which 
I  found  at  Stratford-upon-Avon.  That  place  I  came 
unto  on  Thursday  night,  and  the  next  day  went  to 
visit  the  ashes  of  the  great  Shakespear  which  lye 
interred  in  that  church.  The  verses  which,  in  his  life- 
time, he  ordered  to  be  cut  upon  his  tombstone,  for  his 
monument  have  others,  are  these  which  follow, — 

Reader,  for  Jesus's  sake  forbear 
To  dig  the  dust  enclosed  here  ; 
Blessed  be  he  that  spares  these  stones, 
And  cursed  be  he  that  moves  my  bones. 

The  little  learning  these  verses  contain  would  be  a  very 
strong  argument  of  the  want  of  it  in  the  author,  did 
not  they  carry  something  in  them  which  stands  in  need 
of  a  comment.  There  is  in  this  church  a  place  which 
they  call  the  bone-house,  a  repository  for  all  bones  they 
dig  up,  which  are  so  many  that  they  would  load  a  great 
number  of  waggons.  The  Poet,  being  willing  to  pre- 
serve his  bones  unmoved,  lays  a  curse  upon  him  that 
moves  them,  and  haveing  to  do  with  clerks  and  sextons, 
for  the  most  part  a  very  ignorant  sort  of  people,  he 
descends  to  the  meanest  of  their  capacitys,  and  dis- 
robes himself  of  that  art  which  none  of  his  co-tempor- 
aries wore  in  greater  perfection.  Nor  has  the  design 
mist  of  its  effect,  for,  lest  they  should  not  only  draw 

^  King  Lear^  ii.  4,  173-8.  Mr.  W.  J.  Craig,  in  his  edition  of  the  play 
(1901),  quotes  Sherwood's  English-French  Dictionary  (1622) :  "  To  Size, 
En  rUniversite  de  Cambridg'e,  c'est  la  mesme  chose,  comme  to  battle  en 
Oxford." 


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342    ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  SHAKESPEARE 

this  curse  upon  themselves,  but  also  entail  it  upon  their 
posterity,  they  have  laid  him  full  seventeen  foot  deep, 
deep  enough  to  secure  him.  And  so  much  for  Strat- 
fordi  within  a  mile  of  which  Sir  Robinson  lives,  but  it 
was  so  late  before  I  knew,  that  I  had  not  time  to  make 
him  a  visit  Mr*  Allen  Hammond,  the  bearer  hereof, 
my  particular  acquaintance  and  schoolfellow,  upon  Mr. 
Dean's  recommendation  designs  for  Queen's,  and  in- 
tends to  have  Mr.  Waugh  for  his  tutor.  I  desire  that 
you  would  assist  him  in  what  you  can  as  to  a  study, 
and  make  use  of  your  interest  with  the  senior  poor 
children  to  be  kind  to  him  in  what  concerns  the  going 
about  the  fires.  My  bed,  which  is  in  Pennington's 
chamber,  I  have  ordered  him  to  make  use  of,  if  he 
need  one,  and  do  desire  you  to  help  him  to  it.  Pray 
give  my  service  to  Jacky  White,  Harry  Bird,  and  to 
all  my  Lichfield  acquaintance,  when  you  see  them,  and 
to  all  those  also  that  shall  ask  after  me.  As  for  the 
Staffordshire  words  we  talked  of,  I  will  take  notice  of 
them  and  send  them.  Pray  let  me  hear  from  you  at 
Mr.  Hammond's  man's  return,  wherein  you  will  greatly 
oblige  your  friend  and  servant,  Wm.  Hall.  Direct 
your  letter  for  Wm.  Hall,  junr.,  at  the  White-hart 
in  Lichfield.  For  Mr.  Edward  Thwaites  in  Queen's 
College  in  Oxon." 

Mr.  Hall  took  his  M.A.  degree  in  July,  1697.  He 
was  afterwards  collated  to  the  rectory  of  Acton, 
Middlesex,  and  in  the  spring  of  1708  became  Pre- 
bendary of  Chiswick  in  St.  Paul's  Cathedral.^  He 
finished  building  the  parsonage  house  at  Acton  just 
before  his  death  in  December,  1726 ;  which  caused  Mr. 
Edward  Cobden,  his  successor,  to  inscribe  on  one  of 
the  windows  a  set  of  verses  on  the  time-honoured  theme, 
**  Sic  vos  non  vobis  nidificatis  aves."* 

^  Lc  Neve,  Fasti  Ecc,  Ang,^  ii.  379. 

'  See  E.  Walford,  Greater  London,  i.  la 


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GILDON  ON  SHAKESPEARE'S  LIFE    343 


IV 

A  NOTE  BY  GILDON— AUBREY— MR.  BEESTON's  INFORMATION  IN 
AUBREY'S  MSS. — THE  '*  BUTCHER-BOY "  AND  DAVENANT  LEGENDS 

Gildon  is  our  authority  for  another  piece  of  gossip. 
He  says  of  Shakespeare,  in  his  edition  of  Langbaine, 
that  he  was  buried  with  his  wife  and  daughter  in  Strat- 
ford Churchy  under  a  monument  with  the  inscription 
^'Ingenio  Pylum,"  etc.,  showing  a  carelessness  even 
greater  than  Pope's  in  the  matter  of  quotation.*  **I 
have  been  told  that  he  writ  the  Scene  of  the  Ghost  in 
Hamlet,  at  his  House  which  bordered  on  the  Charnel- 
House  and  Churchyard."  ^  He  may  have  been  thinking 
of  the  College  ;  but  he  ought  to  have  known  that  New 
Place  was  not  near  the  church.  The  Ghost  in  Hamlet 
reminded  Gildon  of  churchyards,  in  the  absence  of  any 
precise  ideas  about  the  high  platform  at  Elsinore. 
**  What  may  this  mean?  That  thou,  dead  corse" — we 
know  the  Prince's  thought  2 — 

*'  Let  me  not  burst  in  ignorance  ;  but  tell 
Why  thy  canonized  bones,  hearsed  in  death, 
Have  burst  their  cerements  ;  why  the  sepulchre, 
Wherein  we  saw  thee  quietly  inurn'd. 
Hath  oped  his  ponderous  and  marble  jaws. 
To  cast  thee  up  again."* 

We  must  now  quote  some  of  the  information  which 
Aubrey  derived  from  Dr.  William  Beeston  or  from  his 
papers.  It  is  in  the  form  of  a  contrast  between  Shake- 
speare and  Jonson.  Beeston  recollected  the  sturdy 
laureate  very  well,  but  had  very  dim  recollections  of 
what  he  had  heard  in  his  boyhood  about  ''that  Greater 
Spirit."     The  wonder  is  that  Aubrey  himself  had  not 

^  Cf.  supruy  p.  332,  note  i. 

'  Lang^baine,  Account  of  English  Dramatic  Authors^  ed.  Gildon,  1699, 
p.  126.  '  Hamlet,  i.  4»  46-51. 


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344    ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  SHAKESPEARE 

made  inquiries  when  he  was  an  undergraduate  in  Dr. 
Ralph  Ketteirs  time.  Mr.  Howe,  as  we  have  seen, 
was  a  tutor,  fond  of  talking  about  the  poets.  Dr. 
Kettell  was  a  contemporary  of  Shakespeare,  being  in 
his  seventy-ninth  year  in  1642,  when  young  Beeston 
and  Aubrey  came  up.  Aubrey  says  that  he  spoke  much 
about  the  Articles,  ''and  the  rood-loft,  and  of  the 
wafers,"  and  remembered  **  those  times."  ^  His  brain, 
says  the  biographer,  was  'Hike  a  hasty  pudding," 
where  memory  and  judgment  and  fancy  were  **  all 
stirred  together."*  He  hated  a  periwig-pated  fellow, 
and  periwigs  had  gone  out  of  fashion  since  the  poet's 
time;  ''he  beleeved  them  to  be  the  scalpes  of  men 
cutt  off  after  they  were  hang'd,  and  so  tanned  and 
dressed  for  use."*  We  already  have  noticed  the  story 
of  his  reception  of  the  kindly  meant  present  which  Mr. 
Howe's  mother  sent  from  Grendon  Underwood.*  It 
is  probable,  said  Aubrey,  that  the  doctor  would  have 
"finisht  his  century,"  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  Civil 
War;  but  all  discipline  and  learning  began  to  disappear 
when  the  army  came  in.  "  I  remember,  being  at  the 
Rhetorique  lecture  in  the  hall,  a  foot-soldier  came  in 
and  brake  his  hower-glasse.  .  .  .  Our  grove  was  the 
Daphne  for  the  ladies  and  their  gallants  to  walke  in, 
and  many  times  my  lady  Isabella  Thynne  would  make 
her  entrey  with  a  theorbo  or  lute  played  before  hen  I 
have  heard  her  play  on  it  in  the  grove  myselfe,  which 
she  did  rarely ;  for  which  Mr.  Edmund  Waller  hath  in 
his  Poems  for  ever  made  her  famous."*  The  under- 
graduates seem  to  have  got  completely  out  of  hand. 

^  Aubrey,  op.  cit^  ii.  i8,  sub  Ralph  Kettell.  Aubrey  wrote  "36" 
Articles,  with  "  quaere  "  in  the  marg-in. 

^  Jbid,i  p.  19.  Aubrey  was  quoting*  from  one  of  the  fellows  of 
Trinity.  '  IbicL^  p.  21.  *  Supra f  pp.  184-5. 

'  Aubrey,  w.5.,  p.  24.  He  notes  that  Lady  Isabella  Thynne  "lay 
at  Balliol  Colleg'e";  her  friend,  Mrs.  Fanshawe  "lay  at  our  college" 
See  Waller's  poems,  ed.  G.  Thorn  Drury,  1893,  p.  90:  O/my  Latfy  IsabeUat 
playing  upon  a  Lute, 


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AUBREY  AT  OXFORD  345 

The  President  used  to  call  them  **  Tarrarags  (these  were 
the  worst  sort,  rude  rakells),  Rascal^Jacks^  Blindcinques^ 
Scobberlotchers  (these  did  no  hurt,  were  sober,  but  went 
idleing  about  the  grove  with  their  hands  in  their 
pocketts,  and  telling  the  number  of  the  trees  there,  or 
so).  "^  We  cannot  tell  which  class  was  affected  by  young 
Mr.  Beeston,  but  it  is  pretty  clear  that  Aubrey  himself 
was  a  Scobberlotcher. 

Aubrey  doubtless  obtained  from  "old  Mr."  Beeston 
a  tradition  of  Shakespeare  which  he  wrongly  attributed 
to  another  poet,  "  Michael  Drayton,  esq.,  natus  in 
Warwickshire  at  Atherston  upon  Stower  (quaere 
Thomas  Mariett).  He  was  a  butcher's  sonne.  Was 
a  squire ;  viz.  one  of  the  esquires  to  Sir  Walter  Aston, 
Knight  of  the  Bath.  ...  He  lived  at  the  bay-windowe 
house  next  the  east  end  of  St.  Dunstan's  Church  in 
Fleet-street."*  ''From  Mr.  Beeston"  he  heard  a 
similar  story  in  the  other  case.  *  "Mr.  William 
Shakespear  was  borne  at  Stratford-upon-Avon  in  the 
county  of  Warwick.  His  father  was  a  butcher,  and  I 
have  been  told  heretofore  by  some  of  the  neighbours, 
that  when  he  was  a  boy  he  exercised  his  father's  trade, 
but  when  he  kill'd  a  calfe  he  would  doe  it  in  a  high 
style,  and  make  a  speech.  There  was  at  that  time 
another  butcher's  son  in  this  towne  that  was  held 
not  at  all  inferior  to  him  for  a  naturall  witt,  his 
acquaintance  and  coetanean,  but  dyed  young.  This 
William,  being  inclined  naturally  to  poetry  and 
acting,  came   to    London,   I    guesse,  about   18;    and 


^  Aubrey,  u.^.,  p.  26.  '^  ItL^'x,  239,  sub  Michael  Drayton. 

'  "From  Mr.  .  .  .  Beeston"  is  the  note  with  which  Aubrey  ends  his 
account  of  Shakespeare.  That  most,  if  not  all,  of  his  account  was 
derived  from  this  source  appears  from  a  note  in  vol.  i.  p.  97.  '*  W» 
Shakespeare — quaere  Mr.  Beeston,  who  knows  most  of  him  from  Mr. 
Lacy.  He  lives  in  Shoreditch  at  Hog-lane  within  6  dores  north  of 
Folgate.  Quaere  etiam  for  Ben  Jonson"  Also  m/.,  p.  96.  "Old  Mr. 
[Beeston],  who  knew  all  the  old  Engflish  poets,  whose  lives  I  am  taking- 
from  him  ;  his  father  was  master  of  the  .  .  .  playhouse. " 


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346    ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  SHAKESPEARE 

was  an  actor  at  one  of  the  play-houses,  and  did  act 
exceedingly  welL"^  Aubrey  has  a  note  about  Ben 
Jonson,  received  from  Mr.  J.  Greenhill,  that  when  he 
came  home  from  the  Low  Countries  he  '*  acted  and 
wrote,  but  both  ill,  at  the  Green  Curtaine,  a  kind  of 
nursery  or  obscure  playhouse,  somewhere  in  the 
suburbes  (I  think  towards  Shoreditch  or  Clarkenwell). 
.  .  .  Then,"  Aubrey  continues,  ''he  undertooke  again 
to  write  a  playe,  and  did  hitt  it  admirably  well."* 
''  Now  B.  Johnson,"  to  return  to  the  account  of  Shake- 
speare, ''was  never  a  good  actor,  but  an  admirable 
instructor." '  Then  of  Shakespeare  again :  "  He  began 
early  to  make  essayes  at  dramatique  poetry,  which 
at  that  time  was  very  lowe;  and  his  playes  took 
well.  He  was  a  handsome,  well-shap't  man :  very  good 
company,  and  of  a  very  readie  and  pleasant  smooth 
witt."  We  omit  the  anecdotes  about  Grendon,  and  the 
epitaphs  on  "Combes,  an  old  rich  usurer."  "Ben 
Johnson  and  he  did  gather  humours  of  men  dayly  where 
ever  they  came.  .  .  •  He  was  wont  to  goe  to  his  native 
countrey  once  a  yeare.  I  thinke  I  have  been  told  that 
he  left  2  or  300  It  per  annum  there  and  thereabout  to 
a  sister.  ...  I  have  heard  Sir  William  Davenant 
and  Mr.  Thomas  Shadwell  (who  is  counted  the  best 
comoedian  we  have  now)  say  that  he  had  a  most  pro- 
digious witt,  and  did  admire  his  naturall  parts  beyond 
all  other  dramaticall  writers.  He  was  wont  to  say^  that 
he  'never  blotted  out  a  line  in  his  life';  said  Ben: 
Johnson,  '  I  wish  he  had  blotted-out  a  thousand.'  His 
comoedies  will  remaine  witt  as  long  as  the  English 
tongue  is  understood,  for  that  he  handles  mores 
hominum.  Now  our  present  writers  reflect  so  much 
upon  particular  persons  and  Coxcombeities,  that  twenty 
yeares  hence  they  will  not  be  understood.     Though,  as 

*  Aubrey,  «,*.,  ii.  225-6.  ^  Id.  y\\.  12, 

'  Parenthesis  foUowtng  the  words  '*did  act  exceedingly  well,"  u,s. 

*  Aubrey  adds  the  parenthesis  ('*  B.  Johnson's  Underwoods") 


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AUBREY'S  ANECDOTES  347 

Ben:  Johnson  sayes  of  him,  that  he  had  but  little  Latine 
and  lesse  Greek,  he  understood  Latine  pretty  well,  for 
he  had  been  in  his  younger  yeares  a  schoolmaster  in 
the  countrey."^ 

Aubrey  gives  a  very  full  version  of  the  story  about 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Davenant,  which  seems  to  have  been 
based  on  the  idea  of  a  literary  relationship,  of  which 
instances  have  been  given  above.^  It  should  be  added 
that  in  a  sentence  which  has  been  erased  from  his  manu- 
script he  seems  to  have  been  tempted  to  make  the 
insinuation  against  Mrs.  Davenant,  which  Oldys  re- 
futed, when  he  traced  its  original  to  an  ancient  jest^ 
book.^  Davenant's  father  was  a  vintner  at  the  Crown 
Inn  at  Oxford,  or  the  **Crowne  taverne,"  as  Aubrey 
calls  it.  His  mother  was  beautiful,  ''and  of  conversa- 
tion extremely  agreable.  They  had  three  sons,  viz.  i, 
Robert,  2,  William,  and  3,  Nicholas  (an  attorney). 
Robert  was  a  fellow  of  St.  John's  College  in  Oxford, 
then  preferred  to  the  vicarage  of  West  Kington  by 
Bishop  Davenant,  whose  chaplain  he  was.  They  also 
had  two  handsome  daughters — one  married  to  Gabriel 
Bridges  (B.D.,  fellow  of  C.C.  Coll.,  beneficed  in  the 
Vale  of  White  Horse),  another  to  Dr.  Sherburne 
(minister  of  Pembridge  in  Hereford,  and  a  canon  of 
that  church).  Mr.  William  Shakespeare  was  wont  to 
goe  into  Warwickshire  once  a  yeare,  and  did  commonly 
in  his  journey  lye  at  this  house  in  Oxon.  where  he  was 
exceedingly  respected.  I  have  heard  Parson  Robert 
say  that  Mr.  W.  Shakespeare  haz  given  him  a  hundred 
kisses."  The  last  sentence  is  not  in  the  printed  Lives, 
but  was  added  from  the  manuscript  at  the  Bodleian  by 
Mr.   Halliwell-Phillipps,  who  said   that  it  had   been 

*  Aubrey,  u,s.f  ii.  226-7. 

'  See  sup,  p.  47  (Jonson  and  Serjeant  Hoskyns) ;  p.  47  and  inf.  p.  473 
(Field  and  Chapman). 

'  See  the  documentary  evidence  printed  in  Halliwell-Phillipps,  op,  cit,^ 
PP- 43-50- 


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348    ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  SHAKESPEARE 

erased  in  the  last  century,  but  could  still  be  distinctly 
read  when  placed  under  a  magnifying-glass.  **  Now 
Sir  William  would  sometimes,  when  he  was  pleasant 
over  a  glasse  of  wine  with  his  most  intimate  friends 
— e.g.  Sam  Butler  (author  of  Hudibras)  &c. — say, 
that  it  seemed  to  him  that  he  writt  with  the  very  spirit 
that  Shakespeare,  and  seemed  contented  enough  to  be 
thought  his  son."^  Samuel  Butler  seems  to  have  been 
quite  of  Dr.  Beeston's  opinion  about  the  afiiectations  and 
coxcombry  of  the  fashionable  writers,  for  in  talking  of 
Waller,  who  was  also  very  intimate  with  Davenant,  he 
remarked  that  Waller's  way  of  "quibling  with  sence" 
would  soon  grow  out  of  fashion  and  be  ^'as  ridicule  as 
quibling  with  words."* 


AJ.LUSIONS  BY  SHAKESPEARE  TO  THE   BUTCHER'S  TRADE — 
INCONSISTENCY  OP  EVIDENCE  ON   THE   POINT 

On  the  question  whether  Shakespeare  was  a  butcher- 
boy,  it  will  be  observed  that  the  stories  told  to  Aubrey's 
informant  and  to  Dowdall  in  no  way  coincide.  Beeston 
had  heard  that  John  Shakespeare  was  a  butcher,  one  of 
two  in  that  trade  who  supplied  the  town,  and  that  his 
little  son  helped  in  the  shop  and  shambles.  But  Dow- 
dall was  informed  by  his  aged  guide  that  the  boy  had 
been  bound  apprentice  to  a  master-butcher,  obviously 
not  his  father.' 

According  to  the  Corporation  books,  Mr.  Ralf 
Cawdrey  was  a  butcher  at  Stratford  during  the  poet's 
childhood.  He  was  twice  High  Bailiff,  and  served  in 
other  municipal  offices.     He  seems  to  have  been  much 

^  Aubrey >  u,s,yU  204,  sub  Sir  William  Davenant;  Halliwell-Fhillipps, 
op,  citt  ii.  43. 

^  Aubrey,  m.s.,  i.  136,  sub,  Samuel  Butler.  To  this  Aubrey  adds, 
**— quod  N.B."  *   Vide  supra,  p.  33  a. 


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WAS  SHAKESPEARE  A  BUTCHER?    349 

respected  in  his  day;  and  he  may  still  be  regarded 
with  interest  as  the  father,  if  the  story  is  believed,  of 
the  ''little  boy  blue"  who  helped  to  carry  the  trays  of 
meat  round  the  town.  But  Mr.  John  Shakespeare, 
by  the  same  books,  is  shown  not  to  have  been  a  butcher, 
but  a  glover.  He  was  "gloving"  in  1556,  and  was 
still  in  the  same  trade  thirty  years  afterwards.  Shake- 
speare seems  to  allude  to  the  business  in  The  Merry 
Wives  of  Windsor: — 

"  Quickly.  And  Master  Slender's  your  master? 
^^  Simple.     Ay,  forsooth. 

**  Quickly.  Does  he  not  wear  a  great  round  beard,  like  a 
glover's  paring-knife  ? 

* « Simple.     No,  forsooth. "  * 

People  have  talked  of  John  Shakespeare's  multifarious 
pursuits,  suggesting  that  he  farmed  in  the  common-field 
at  Asbies,  and  made  up  the  wool  and  butchered  the 
stock  at  Stratford;  but,  in  fact,  the  farm  was  under 
lease  to  a  tenant,  and  he  would  never  have  been  allowed 
in  any  case  to  join  such  incongruous  trades  as  those 
of  a  butcher  and  a  glover.  He  could  not  keep  a  regular 
meat-shop  while  trading  in  skins,  and  no  one  has 
seriously  suggested  that  he  worked  about  as  a  slaughter- 
man, though  such  people  were  classed  among  butchers. 
The  meat  trade  was  stringently  regulated  by  statute, 
and  nothing  was  allowed  to  interfere  with  the  regular 
official  inspection.  The  killing  of  calves  was  the  subject 
of  constant  restrictions,  and  it  is  certain  that  the  in- 
spectors would  put  a  stop  to  anjrthing  that  might  injure 
the  veal ;  it  is  almost  inconceivable,  indeed,  that  a  boy 
would  be  allowed  to  play  such  pranks  in  the  shambles 
as  the  gossips  described.  A  butcher's  business  was  to 
sell  wholesome  meat  and  suet  at  a  profit  not  exceeding 
a  penny  in  the  shilling,  not  taking  his  veal  too  young, 
nor  keeping  the  calf  so  long  that  its  meat  might  encroach 

*  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor ^  u  4,  18-22. 

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350    ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  SHAKESPEARE 

on  the  steer-beef,  and  not  selling  any  lean  meat  as  if 
he  had  got  it  from  the  fat  stock.  He  was  bound, 
moreover,  to  keep  the  horns  and  hide  of  every  beast  till 
all  the  beef  was  sold,  so  that  in  case  of  theft  the  owner 
might  identify  his  property.  The  Tanners'  Act  was 
passed  in  1530,  and  was  continually  renewed ;  and 
although  it  became  obsolete  of  late  years,  it  was  not 
formally  repealed  till  1863.  The  butchers  were  for- 
bidden by  that  Act  to  intermeddle  in  any  way  with  the 
craft  of  curriers  and  tanners,  partly  because  they  had 
taken  to  issuing  ^^  untrue  and  deceivable  leather,"  and 
partly  to  prevent  them  from  buying  stolen  cattle  and 
making  away  with  the  hides. 

If  we  do  not  believe  in  the  killing  of  calves  "in  a  high 
style,"  we  need  not  trouble  much  about  the  "speech "; 
but  it  is  easy  to  imagine  the  townsfolk  might  make  up 
the  story  out  of  the  good  Duke  Humphrey's  fate : 

"And  as  the  butcher  takes  away  the  calf 
And  binds  the  wretch  and  beats  it  when  it  strays, 
Bearing  it  to  the  bloody  slaughter-house, 
Even  so  remorseless  have  they  borne  him  hence ; 
And  as  the  dam  runs  lowing  up  and  down, 
Looking  the  way  her  harmless  young  one  went. 
And  can  do  naught  but  wail  her  darling's  loss, 
Even  so  myself  bewails  good  Gloucester's  case 
With  sad  unhelpful  tears.  "^ 

There  are  a  few  allusions  to  the  trade  which  require 
some  slight  explanation.  We  have  Dick,  the  butcher, 
who  works  in  his  shirt :  "  Then  is  sin  struck  down  like 
an  ox,  and  iniquity's  throat  cut  like  a  calf."  "  Where's 
Dick,  the  Butcher  of  Ashford,"  asks  Jack  Cade.  "  They 
fell  before  thee  like  sheep  and  oxen,"  he  proceeds: 
**  .  .  .  therefore  thus  will  I  reward  thee,  the  Lent  shall 
be  as  long  again  as  it  is ;  and  thou  shalt  have  a  licence 
to  kill  for  a  hundred  lacking  one."^    The  English,  in 

^  2  Henry  VLy  tit.  i,  210-18;  cf.  id,^  Hi.  2,  i88-9a 
2  /flC.,  iv.  9,  28-9 ;  iv.  3,  1-9. 


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ALLUSIONS  TO   BUTCHERS'  TRADE    351 

their  own  way,  were  strict  observers  of  Lent.  They 
were  very  particular  about  the  Friday  fast  throughout 
the  year,  and  in  Lent  they  abstained  from  meat  on 
alternate  days.  Even  when  meat  was  taken,  Mercutio's 
song  about  the  **old  hare"  shows  that  some  had  to 
shift  with  a  mouldy  Lenten  pie.  ^  There  is  a  ballad 
called  "Woe  worth  thee,  Lenten,"  in  the  volume 
edited  by  Mr.  Wright  for  the  Roxburghe  Club,  which 
shows  how  the  butcher's  trade  suffered.*  It  was  written 
by  some  unknown  poet  about  the  beginning  of  Queen 
Mary's  reign,  and  there  is  some  reason  to  think  that 
it  had  come  under  Shakespeare's  notice.  In  Twelfth 
Nighty  for  example,  Olivia  sings : 

''  I  am  as  mad  as  he, 
If  sad  and  merry  madness  equal  be  "  ;  ^ 

and  the  ballad-writer  complains  that  Lent  has  exiled 
"jentill  Cristimas,  with  his  myrry  madnes."  In 
Measure  for  Measure^  again,  we  hear  of  a  beggar  that 
smelt  " brown  bread  and  garlic,"*  and  of  Lent  the  song 
complains : 

*  *  He  wyll  mayk  many  to  pyll  a  garlyke  hede, 
Syt  dowen  and  eat  hit  with  a  pece  off  brownie  brede, 

Such  sorrow ! " 

The  butcher,  the  poulter,  and  partridger  may  take  to 
their  beds  or  go  on  a  pilgrimage.  Farewell  to  the 
mutton  and  beef,  farewell  the  bustard  and  brawn  ;  **  Far 
well,  jentill  Wat,  with  thy  longe  ears."  But  rich 
people  could  obtain  dispensations,  and  might  deal  with 
a  butcher  duly  licensed  to  sell.  **I  desire  no  more," 
says  Dick  of  Ashford :  **  And,  to  speak  truth,"  answers 
Jack  Cade,  **thou  deservest  no  less."^ 

Most  of  the  poet's  references  to  the  trade  are  of  a 

^  Romeo  and  Juliet^  ii.  4,  141-6. 

^  Songs  and  Bcdlads  .  .  .  chiefly  of  the  Reign  0/ Philip  and  Mary^  ed. 
Wrig-ht,  i860,  p.  12,  No.  v.,  [W]o  worthe  the,  Lenttone. 
»  Twelfth  Nighty  iii.  4,  15-16. 
*  Measure  Jbr  Measure,  iii.  2,  194-5.  *  ^  Henry  VL,  u.s,,  10-11. 


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352    ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  SHAKESPEARE 

disparaging  kind.  What  says  the  Hostess?  ^'Did 
not  goodwife  Keech,  the  butcher's  wife,  come  in  then 
and  call  me  gossip  Quickly?  .  .  •  And  didst  thou  not 
.  .  .  desire  me  to  be  no  more  so  familiarity  with  such 
poor  people  ?  "  ^  Launce,  again,  when  he  addresses  his 
cruel-hearted  cur,  vows  that  ''he  is  a  stone,  a  very 
pebble-stone,  and  has  no  more  pity  in  him  than  a  dog."  ^ 
This  looks  like  a  reference  to  Cock  LorelVs  Boat^ 
with  its  crew  of  rascals  that  supplied  the  tag  about 
<<  swearing  and  staring."  Among  the  brigands  who 
sail  "from  Tyburn  to  Chelsea"  is  a  butcher  with  two 
bulldogs  at  his  tail : 

'*  In  his  hande  he  bare  a  flap  for  dyes 
His  hosen  gresy  upon  his  thyes 
On  his  necke  he  bare  a  cole  tre  logge 
He  had  as  moche  pyte  as  a  dogge. "  ^ 

It  has  been  suggested  that  Shakespeare  showed  more 
technical  knowledge  than  a  boy  would  have  gained  by 
peeping  into  the  shambles  or  watching  his  mother  in  the 
kitchen.     The  instance  chosen  is  Rosalind's  metaphor  : 

''  This  way  will  I  take  upon  me  to  wash  your  liver  as  clean 
as  a  sound  sheep's  heart,  that  there  shall  not  be  one 
spot  of  love  in't."* 

But  this  is  only  another  jest  upon  the  '*  liver  vein,"  the 
**pure  idolatry"  of  which  we  have  heard  in  Lovers 
Labour^s  Losty  with  a  further  suggestion  that  the  lover 
was  as  silly  as  a  sheep ;  ^  and,  indeed,  Biron  himself 
had  said : 

''This  love  is  as  mad  as  Ajax :  it  kills  sheep;  it  kills  me, 
I  a  sheep  :  well  proved  again  o*  my  side. "  ^ 

Here  we  will  leave  the  question  whether  the  boy 
Shakespeare  was  ever  employed  in  a  butcher's  biisi- 

*  2  Henry  IV.f  ii.  i,  101-8. 

'  Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona^  iL  3,  10-12. 

»  Cock  LoreUs  Boaty  ed.  H.  Drury,  1817,  Sig.  B.  i. 

^  As  You  Like  It^  iii.  2,  441-4. 

'  Love*s  Labour* s  Lost,  iv.  3,  74-5.  •  /&«/.,  6-8. 


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THE   BUTCHER-BOY  STORY 


353 


ness,  feeling  that  the  safe  course  would  be  to  adopt 
Rowe's  cautious  style,  and  to  say  that  **upon  his 
leaving  school,  he  seems  to  have  given  entirely  into 
that  way  of  living  which  his  father  proposed  to  him ; 
and,  in  order  to  settle  in  the  world  after  a  family 
manner,  he  thought  fit  to  marry  while  he  was  yet  very 
young.  "^ 

^  Rowe,  in  Malone,  ed.  Boswell,  i.  437-8.  See  also  J.  O.  Halliwell, 
Was  Nicholas  ap  /Roberts  that  butcher's  son  .  .  .  who  is  recorded  by  Aubrey 
as  having  been  an  acquaintance  of  Shakespeare  .  .  .  and  was  Shakespeare 
an  apprentice  to  Griffin  ap  Roberts  ?    Privately  printed,  1864. 


2   A 


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THE    PRODUCTION    OF 
"THE    TEMPEST" 


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THE    PRODUCTION    OF 
"THE    TEMPEST" 

I.   HUNTER'S  THEORIES,   1839 
I 

hunter's  "  DISQUISITION  ON  *  THE  TEMPEST*"  —  RALEGH's 
**  DESCRIPTION  OF  GUIANA" — DEWLAPPED  MOUNTAINEERS 
AND    HEADLESS    MEN 

MR.  HUNTER  contended  that  Shakespeare  pro- 
duced The  Tempest  in  1596,  as  a  counterblast 
to  Ralegh's  description  of  Guiana.^  The  book  con- 
tained exaggerated  accounts  of  what  the  explorers  had 
seen  and  heard.  The  title  was,  in  Mr.  Hunter's  opinion, 
**  enough  to  condemn  it,  boastful  and  ridiculous" :  **The 
discoverie  of  the  large,  rich,  and  beautiful  Empire  of 
Guiana,  with  a  Relation  of  the  great  and  golden  City  of 
Manoa,  which  the  Spaniards  call  El  Dorado^  and  the 
Provinces  of  Emeria,   Arromaia,  Amapaia,  and  other 

^  Joseph  Hunter,  F.S.A.,  A  Disquisition  on  the  Scene,  Origin,  Date, 
etc.  etc,  of  Shakespeare* s  Tempest,  in  a  Utter  to  Benjamin  Heywood 
BrigU,  Esq»,  1859^  '^^^  substance  of  this  tract  was  reprinted  as  part 
of  the  New  Illustrations  of  the  Life,  etc,,  of  Shakespeare,  1845,  vol.  i. 
pp.  123-89. 

357 


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358    PRODUCTION   OF   *'THE  TEMPEST 

countries,  with  their  rivers,  adjoining ;  performed  in 
the  year  1595  by  Sir  W.  Ralegh,  Knight."  The  book 
is  printed  in  Haklu)rt's  collection  of  voyages,  and  was 
well  summarised  by  William  Oldys  in  his  Life  of  Sir 
Walter  Raleigh,  from  his  birth  to  his  death  on  the 
scaffold.^  The  main  object  of  the  expedition  was  to 
reach  the  White  Lake  and  the  golden-roofed  city  of 
Manoa,  in  which  all  the  world  at  that  time  believed ; 
and  there  were  hopes  of  finding  gold  and  silver  in  the 
lower  valley  of  the  Orinoco.  Ralegh  did  not  go 
further  than  the  mouth  of  the  Caroli  River  in 
Arromaia;  and  here  he  was  told  of  certain  inland 
tribes  who  were  very  rich  in  gold,  and  of  a  great 
silver-mine  further  up  the  river.  He  marched  over- 
land to  see  the  "  strange  over-fals  of  the  river  of 
Caroli,"  described  by  him  as  a  "  wonderfuU  breach  of 
waters,"  with  ten  or  twelve  steep  cataracts,  every  one  as 
high  over  the  other  as  a  church  tower.  Here  Ralegh 
and  his  friends  picked  free  gold  out  of  the  quartz  with 
their  daggers ;  ^  and  in  later  days  there  was  much  con- 
troversy at  home  about  the  value  of  the  specimens. 
Mr.  Ward  of  Stratford  noted  in  his  Diary  that  Mr. 
Sampson,  a  chemist  living  in  Great  Alley  Street  about 
East  Smithfield,  told  him  many  things  about  Sir 
Walter ;  on  the  4th  of  January,  1661,  he  added  :  **  Old 
Sampson,  the  chymist,  told  me  that  he  made  the  aqua- 
fortis with  which  Sir  W.  Raleigh  did  precipitate  gold 
to  inrich  an  oar,  which  he  presented  to  King  James, 
proffering  to  bring  the  same  from  beyond  sea,  but 
could  not  perform  his  promise."*  Howell  described 
Sir  Walter's  last  attempt  to  fulfil  his  design,  in  a  letter 
to  Sir  James  Crofts:  "The  news  that  keeps  greatest 

*  Haklu}^!,  Voyages^  €tc.,  1600,  iii.,  627-66,  contains  Raleg^h's  Guiana* 
Oldys*  life  of  Ralegh  occupies  pp.  lxxvi.-cix.  of  the  1736  ecL  of  the 
HUtory  of  the  World, 

^  Ralegh,  Discovery^  etc.,  in  Hakluyt,  «.5.,  iii.  652. 

'  Ward's  Diary y  pp.  168-9, 


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RALEGH'S  VOYAGE   TO  GUIANA      359 

noise  here  now,  is  the  return  of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh 
from  his  Mine  of  Gold  in  Guiana^  the  South  parts  of 
America^  which  at  first  was  like  to  be  such  a  hopeful 
boon  Voyage,  but  it  seems  that  that  Golden  Mine  is 
proved  a  mere  Chimera^  an  imaginary  airy  Mine  .  .  . 
'tis  pity  such  a  knowing  well-weigh'd  Knight  had  not 
had  a  better  fortune."^  But  he  acknowledged  in  a 
subsequent  letter  to  Mr.  Carew  Ralegh  that  there  was 
a  real  mine:  ''for  you  write  of  divers  pieces  of  Gold 
brought  thence  by  Sir  Walter  himself  and  Captain 
Kemys^  and  of  some  Ingots  that  were  found  in  the 
Governor's  Closet  at  St.  TTtomas^s^  with  divers  Crucibles 
and  other  refining  Instruments."'  The  travellers  had 
never  seen  ''a  more  beautiful  country,  nor  more  lively 
prospects  "  than  in  Arromaia :  **  The  deere  crossing  in 
every  path,  the  birds  towards  the  evening  singing  on 
every  tree  with  a  thousand  severall  tunes,  cranes  and 
herons  of  white,  crimson,  and  carnation  pearching  in 
the  rivers  side,  the  aire  fresh  with  a  gentle  Easterly 
winde :  and  every  stone  that  we  stouped  to  take  up, 
promised  either  golde  or  silver  by  his  complexion." 
Prince  Gualtero,  the  son  of  an  old  chief,  went  back 
with  Ralegh  as  a  pledge  of  friendship.^  On  the  return 
voyage  towards  Emeria  other  gold  mines  were  dis- 
covered, and  from  one  of  the  branches  of  the  Orinoco 
they  saw  what  was  called  the  Mountain  of  Crystal ;  it 
looked  at  a  distance  'Mike  a  white  Church-tower  of  an 
exceeding  height,"  over  the  top  of  which  a  mighty 
river  rushed  down  with  "  so  terrible  a  noyse  and  clamor, 
as  if  a  thousand  great  bels  were  knockt  one  against 
another."  Antonio  Berreo  told  Ralegh  that  there  were 
diamonds  and  other  stones  of  great  value  there,  "and 
that  they  shined  very  farre  off."*     At  Curiapan  they 

^  E^,  Ho^El^  ed.  J.  Jacobs,  1892,  p.  23  (bk.  i.  {  i.  let.  4:  London^ 
28  March  1618). 
■  ItLy  p.  480  (ti.  let.  6x ;  FUtt^  5  May  1645). 
•  Ralegh,  «.*.,  pp.  652-6.  *  /</.,  p.  657. 


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36o    PRODUCTION  OF   '*THE  TEMPEST" 

found  their  ships  at  anchor;  'Uhere  was  never  to  us 
a  more  jojrfull  sight/'  says  Ralegh.  They  had 
struggled  against  ^'the  fury  of  Orinoco,"  and  had 
suffered  the  extremes  of  wet  and  heat,  and  hunger  and 
pain,  they  had  fed  on  ^^all  sorts  of  corrupt  fruits  and 
made  meales  of  fresh  fish  without  seasoning,  of  Tor- 
tug{is^  of  Lagartos  or  Crocodiles^  and  of  all  sorts  good 
and  bad,"  and  yet  no  Calentura  befell  them,  ^^or  other 
of  those  pestilent  diseases  which  dwell  in  all  hot  regions, 
and  so  neere  the  Equinoctiall  line."^ 

The  old  chieftain  had  showed  Ralegh  great  plates  of 
gold,  shaped  like  eagles,  and  said  that  the  tribes  of  the 
interior  found  the  metal  in  the  Lake  of  Manoa  and  in 
the  beds  of  several  rivers ;  *'  they  gathered  it  in  graines 
of  perfect  gold  •  •  •  and  that  they  put  to  it  a  part  of 
copper,  otherwise  they  could  not  work  it,  and  that  they 
used  a  great  earthen  pot  with  holes  round  about  it,  and 
when  they  had  mingled  the  gold  and  copper  together, 
they  fastened  canes  to  the  holes,  and  so  with  the  breath 
of  men  they  increased  the  fire  till  the  metall  ran,  and 
then  they  cast  it  into  moulds  of  stone  and  clay,  and 
so  made  those  plates  and  images."^  The  same  chief 
confirmed  the  story  of  the  Amazons,  with  whom 
Orellana  had  fought  on  the  **  River  of  Maranon,"  or  the 
Amazons'  River,  saying  that  there  was  a  nation  of 
female  warriors  in  the  provinces  of  Topago,  within  the 
Empire  of  Guiana  :  and  that,  like  the  bordering  nations, 
these  women  wore  plates  of  gold,  which  they  obtained 
in  barter  for  the  **  spleen-stones,"  made  of  the  green 
jade  called  Saussurite.  **Of  these,"  says  Ralegh,  **I 
saw  divers  in  Guiana,  for  every  King  or  Casique  hath 
one,  which  their  wives  for  the  most  part  weare,  and  they 
esteem  them  as  great  jewels."'  La  Condamine,  in  the 
last  century,  found  the  same  legend  prevailing,  the 
Indians  saying  that  they  inherited  the  ** divine  stones  " 

^  Id,y  pp.  659,  66a  *  /</.,  p.  656. 

»  Id,,  p.  638. 


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AMAZONS  OF  GUIANA  361 

from  their  fathers,  who  received  them  from  the  **  Women- 
living-alone."^  Later  travellers  confirmed  his  report, 
and  Humboldt  was  inclined  to  believe  that  a  society  of 
women  might  have  acquired  some  power  **in  one  part 
of  Guiana*  "2  Sir  Walter  Ralegh  had  an  object  in  view ; 
**  he  sought  to  fix  the  attention  of  Queen  Elizabeth  on 
the  great  Empire  of  Guiana,  the  conquest  of  which  he 
proposed " ;  but  the  influence  of  such  motives  would 
not  warrant  us  in  entirely  rejecting  the  tradition.  The 
treatise  on  Guiana  concluded  with  a  prayer  that  the 
King  of  kings  might  put  it  into  her  heart,  who  is  Lady 
of  ladies,  to  possess  it ;  **  if  not,"  says  he,  "  I  will  judge 
these  men  worthy  to  be  Kings  thereof,  that  by  her 
grace  and  leave  will  undertake  it  of  themselves."* 
'*  Had  I  plantation  of  this  isle,  my  Lord,"  says  old 
Gonzalo  in  the  play,  **.  .  .  and  were  the  King  on't, 
what  would  I  do  ?  "  *  The  phrase  is  obscure  ;  but  the 
notion  certainly  resembles  Ralegh's  proposal  that  the 
Queen  should  allow  Guiana  to  be  planted  and  held  by 
her  subjects  as  **  under-kings."* 

A  stanza  in  the  Faerie  Queene  seems  to  be  inspired 
with  Ralegh's  spirit,  when  he  sought  to  force  England 
into  the  acceptance  of  "  glory  and  endless  gain  "  : 

**  Joy  on  those  warlike  women,  which  so  long 
Can  from  all  men  so  rich  a  kingdome  hold ! 
And  shame  on  you,  O  men,  which  boast  your  strong 
And  valiant  hearts,  in  thoughts  less  hard  and  bold, 
Yet  quaile  in  conquest  of  that  land  of  gold."  * 

^  C.  M.  de  la  Condamine,  Relation  abrdg^e  d'un  Voyage  fait  dans 
Vinterieur  de  lAmirique  Miridionaley  1745,  p.  104. 

•  A.  V.  Humboldt,  Travels  to  the  Equinoctial  Regions  of  America,  tr. 
Thomasina  Ross,  vol.  ii.,  1852,  p.  401. 

•  Ralegh,  u,s,f  p.  662.  *  Tempest,  ii.  i,  143-5. 

•  On  the  system  of  the  encomienda,  by  which  villag-es  **  were  made 
over  as  fiefs  to  the  colonists"  in  the  Spanish  West  Indies,  *'  who  stood  to 
them  in  the  position  of  the  king-,  and  received  their  tribute,"  see  E.  Arm- 
strong, The  Emperor  Charles  V,,  1902,  vol.  ii.  chap.  iv.  ;  also  E.  J.  Payne 
in  Cambridge  Modem  History,  voL  L,  1902,  p.  46. 

'  Spenser,  Faerie  Queene,  iv.  canto  11,  st.  22. 


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362    PRODUCTION  OF   "THE  TEMPEST" 

We  have  a  glimpse  of  Eldorado  in  the  picture  of  bright- 
eyed  Mrs.  Page. 

''  Here's  another  letter  to  her :  she  bears  the  purse,  too ; 
she  is  a  region  in  Guiana,  all  gold  and  bounty.  I  will  be 
cheater  to  them  both,  and  they  shall  be  exchequers  to 
me ;  they  shall  be  my  East  and  West  Indies,  and  I  will 
trade  to  them  both  "  ; 

and  Falstaff  bids  Robin  take  care : 

*'  Hold,  sirrah,  bear  you  these  letters  tightly  ; 
Sail  like  my  pinnace  to  these  golden  shores."  ^ 

Ralegh's  book,  argued  Mr.  Hunter,  must  have 
afforded  conversation  for  half  London.  He  felt  sure 
that  Shakespeare  at  once  seized  upon  it,  either  because 
the  subject  was  so  popular,  or  because  he  wished  to 
warn  his  countrymen  against  a  dangerous  delusion. 
**He  made  this  pamphlet,"  we  are  told,  **the  object 
of  his  satire,  introducing  beside  general  girds  at  the 
wonders  told  by  travellers,  and  the  absurdities  of 
schemes  of  new  settlements,  a  special  attack  on  what, 
after  all,  is  really  the  weakest  point  in  Ralegh's  pam- 
phlet." *    We  turn  at  once  to  the  famous  passage  : — 

**  When  we  were  boys, 
Who  would  believe  that  there  were  mountaineers 
Dew-lapp'd  like  bulls,  whose  throats  had  hanging  at  *em 
Wallets  of  flesh  ?  or  that  there  were  such  men, 
Whose  heads  stood  out  in  their  breasts  ?  which  now  we  find 
Each  putter-out  of  five  for  one  will  bring  us 
Good  warrant  of."  * 

We  shall  deal  first  with  the  headless,  or  high- 
shouldered  men.  Ralegh  was  informed  that  to  the 
west  of  the  Caroli  were  ''  divers  nations  of  Cannibals, 
and  of  those  Ewaipanoma  without  heads. "  He  described 
the  monsters  in  a  passage,  distinguishing  the  various 
forms  of  the  story.     **  Next  unto  Atvi  there  are  two 

*  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor^  i.  3,  75-80,  88-9. 

'  Hunter,  New  lUustratians,  «.f.,  i.  140b  •  Tempest^  iii.  j,  43-9. 


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THE   HEADLESS   MEN  363 

rivers,  Atoica  and  Caora^  and  on  that  branch  which  is 
called  Caora^  are  a  nation  of  people,  whose  heads  appeare 
not  above  their  shoulders;  which  though  it  may  be 
thought  a  meere  fable,  yet  for  mine  owne  part  I  am  re- 
solved it  is  true,  because  every  childe  in  the  provinces 
of  Arromaia  and  Canuri  affirme  the  same ;  they  are 
called  Ewaipanomay  they  ^re  reported  to  have  their 
eyes  in  their  shoulders  and  their  mouthes  in  the  middle 
of  their  breasts."  He  was  also  assured  that  one  of 
them  had  been  taken  prisoner,  and  taken  to  the  old 
chief  of  Arromaia,  a  few  months  before.  In  talking 
over  the  matter  with  Prince  Gualtero,  Ralegh  expressed 
doubts  about  the  story  and  called  it  **a  wonder"  ;  but 
the  Prince  said  they  were  no  **  wonder"  in  his  country, 
for  they  had  lately  slain  many  hundreds  of  his  father's 
people.  When  Ralegh  visited  Cumana,  he  met  a 
Spanish  merchant  who  had  been  far  up  the  Orinoco; 
and  on  hearing  that  the  English  had  reached  the  Caroli, 
he  asked  if  Ralegh  had  seen  those  Indians,  and  declared 
that  he  had  seen  many  of  them  himself.  **  Whether  it 
be  true  or  no,"  said  Sir  Walter,  **the  matter  is  not 
great,  neither  can  there  bee  any  profit  in  the  imagina- 
tion :  for  mine  own  part  I  saw  them  not,  but  I  am 
resolved  that  so  many  people  did  not  all  combine,  or 
forethinke  to  make  the  report."^ 

He  professed  great  reliance  upon  a  passage  in 
**  Mandevile,"  which  came  originally  out  of  Pliny's 
Natural  History ^  and  had  found  its  way  into  the  col- 
lections of  Vincent  de  Beauvais  and  Isidore  of  Seville. 
In  modern  spelling  it  runs  as  follows:  "In  another 
isle  are  foul  men  without  heads,  and  they  have  eyes  in 
either  shoulder  one,  and  their  mouths  are  round-shaped, 
like  a  horse-shoe,  amidst  their  breasts ;  in  one  other  isle 
are  men  without  heads,  and  their  eyes  are  behind  in 
their  shoulders."*     Ralegh  had  a  special  reason  for 

*  Ralegh,  u,s.,  pp.  652-3. 

^  Mandevile,  ed.  Halliwell,  1866,  ch.  xix.  p.  203. 


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364    PRODUCTION  OF  '*THE  TEMPEST" 

maintaining  the  authority  of  the  old  volume  of  won- 
ders. ''Such  a  nation,"  he  said,  ''was  written  of  by 
Mandeviley  whose  reports  were  holden  for  fables  many 
yeeres,  and  yet  since  the  East  Indies  were  discovered, 
we  find  his  relations  true  of  such  things,  as  heretofore 
were  held  incredible."  ^  Now  "  Mandevile  "  had  found 
a  connection  between  the  occurrence  of  gold  and 
crystal ;  and  Ralegh  had  found  a  great  quantity  of 
crystal  and  a  little  gold.  "  Upon  the  rocks  of  crystal," 
we  read,  "grow  the  good  diamonds  that  be  of  treble 
colour  •  .  .  and  albeit  men  find  good  diamonds  in 
India,  yet  nevertheless  men  find  them  more  commonly 
upon  the  rocks  in  the  sea,  and  upon  hills  where  the 
mine  of  gold  is."^  The  question  was  whether  the 
abundance  of  crystal  in  Guiana  might  not  be  taken  as 
a  sign  of  the  presence  of  gold. 

Just  before  Ralegh's  book  appeared.  Captain  Popham 
had  found  letters  in  a  Spanish  prize,  describing  the 
advance  of  Berreo's  forces  to  the  country  of  the  head- 
less men.  We  ought  to  adopt  the  ambiguous  words  of 
Othello  by  calling  them 

*'  men  whose  heads 
Do  grow  beneath  their  shoulders." • 

The  Spaniards  arrived  at  the  foot  of  the  range  where 
they  lived,  and  sent  up  messengers  with  a  quantity  of 
Jews'-harps  to  barter  for  poultry  and  gold  eagles. 
There  was  no  suggestion  in  the  letters  that  the  Indians 
had  not.  mouths  of  the  ordinary  kind.  The  guides  sus- 
pected treachery,  because  the  King,  called  "El  Dorado," 
was  drinking  with  his  warriors,  and  was  smeared  with 
balsam  and  powdered  with  gold.  In  the  middle  of  the 
night  a  message  arrived  that  the  high-shouldered  men 
were  on  the  march ;  and  the  Spaniards  at  once  broke 
up  their  camp  and  escaped  at  full  speed.     These  letters 

^  Ralegh,  u.s.  ^  Mandevile,  f«.£.,  ch.  xiv.  pp.  157-& 

»  Othello,  i.  3,  144-5. 


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THE   RAYA  INDIANS  365 

were  printed  at  the  end  of  Ralegh's  book  by  Order 
of  the  Council.^  M.  de  Pauw,  writing  about  1767^  ex- 
plained the  matter  thus:  **In  Caribane  there  are 
savages  with  hardly  any  necks,  and  their  shoulders  as 
high  as  their  ears  ;  this  is  an  artificial  monstrosity,  the 
children's  heads  being  load^  with  heavy  weights,  so 
that  the  vertebrcB  of  the  neck  seem  to  be  almost  pressed 
into  the  shoulder-bones ;  they  look  at  a  distance  as  if 
they  had  their  mouths  in  their  breasts ;  and  it  is  just 
the  occasion  for  an  excitable  or  ignorant  traveller  to 
bring  out  once  more  the  story  of  the  headless  men."* 
The  Spanish  missionaries  compared  these  men  to 
skates  and  rays,  with  broad  mouths  across  their  bodies ; 
they  called  them  Rayas^  and  placed  them  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Sipapo,  a  branch  of  the  Upper  Orinoco,  in  a 
forest-region  that  has  hardly  been  explored.  Humboldt 
tells  us  of  his  meeting  an  old  man  at  Carichana,  who 
boasted  of  having  been  a  cannibal,  and  of  having  seen 
the  Raya  Indians  *  with  his  own  eyes.' "  * 

We  now  come  to  the  mountaineers  adorned  with 
<'  dangling  dewlaps  "  like  the  snow-white  bull  in  Mena^ 
phon.^  They  had  fleshy  pockets  below  their  necks,  on 
the  model  of  the  pedlar's  ^'sow-skin  bowget."  A 
budget  was  ^^a  pouch  or  bag,"  according  to  the  old 
Dictionaries;  and  Nash,  in  Pierce  Pennilesse^  talked 
of  churls  who  should  be  ^'constrained  to  carry  their 
flesh-budgets  from  place  to  place  on  foot."^  Some 
think  that  the  '' flesh  -  pockets "  were  copied  from 
animals,  and  Mr.  Furness  refers  us  to  the  description 
of  the  *' pouched  Ape."^  It  would  be  quite  as  easy 
to  connect  them  with  Drake's  account  of  the  Californian 

^  In  Haklu3rt,  ti.«.,  HL  66j-6. 

*  C.  de  Pauw,  R^cherches  Phihsophiques  sur  Us  AmMcainSy  1768-9, 
i.  152-3.  •  V.  Humboldt,  «.*.,  11.  317. 

^  MenaphoHy  ed.  Arber,  p.  74:  "The  dangling  dewlap  of  the  silver 
bulL" 

*  Nash,  Puree  Penniless*  SupplicaHon,  ed.  Collier,  1843,  p.  48. 

*  Furness,  New  Variorum  Shakespeare ^  ix.  179. 


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366    PRODUCTION  OF   **THE   TEMPEST" 

marmot,  or  **  prairie-dog  " :  '^  A  strange  kind  of  Conies 
•  •  .  under  her  chinne  on  either  side  a  bagge,  into  the 
which  shee  gathereth  her  meate."*  Other  writers  cited 
in  the  Variorum  edition  go  back  to  Pliny  and  Solinus, 
or  the  History  of  Qtuidrupeds^  by  Conrad  Gresner,  **  the 
Grerman  Pliny,"  best  known  in  English  as  TopselFs 
Natural  History.  These  authorities  deal  with  the  satyrs 
of  mythology,  described  by  Pliny  and  his  follower, 
Solinus,  as  '^  having  nothing  of  human-kind  about 
them  except  the  shape."  These  ancient  writers  did 
not  write  of  ^^ satyrs"  as  men,  though  Gesner  attributed 
the  opinion  to  Solinus;  but  as  time  went  on  the 
''satyr"  was  counted  among  the  savages  that  dwell 
in  the  clefts  of  rocks.  Isidore  of  Seville  reminds  his 
readers  of  St.  Anthony  holding  a  conversation  with  a 
poor  goat-legged  ''satyr"  in  the  wilderness,  and  such 
creatures  were  sometimes  represented  as  having  bags 
of  flesh  at  their  throats.^ 

There  is  nothing  to  show  that  Shakespeare  was 
referring  to  any  South  American  fable  when  he  men- 
tioned his  "dewlapped  mountaineers."  Ralegh  does 
not  speak  of  any  such  people.  Acarete  crossed  the 
continent  from  Paraguay  to  the  Cordilleras,  and  noticed 
the  prevalence  of  "  Ca/io,"  a  slight  thickening  of  the 
throat  attributed  to  snow-water  or  stagnant  air  in  the 
valleys ;  but  this  was  hardly  considered  a  blemish.' 
M.  de  Pauw  compared  the  coto  to  the  European  goitre^ 
known  in  England  as  "Derbyshire  neck,"  and  men- 
tioned several  instances  of  "spurious  rumination  "  and 
other  abnormal  effects  of  the  disease  observed  in 
Switzerland.^  It  seems  probable  that  Shakespeare  re- 
ferred to  a  special  form  of  the  malady  called  "the 
Bavarian  pouch,"  which  had  broken  out  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Salzburg,  and  had  caused  a  great  migra- 

^  Drake,  in  Haklujrt,  u,s,y  iii.  443.  '  Furaess,  «.5. 

'  Acarete  de  Biscay,   Voyage  up  the  River  de  la  Plata,  etc.,  Eng. 
trans.  1698,  p.  J3.  ^  de  Pauw,  m.;.,  i.  154-5. 


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DEWLAPPED   MOUNTAINEERS         367 

tion  from  the  Tyrol  and  Styria  into  Germany.  Burton 
mentioned  the  outbreak  in  his  Anatomy  of  Melancholy 
as  follows :  '^  /.  Aubanus  Bohemus  refers  that  struma, 
or  poke,  of  the  Bavarians  and  Styrians,  to  the  nature 
of  their  waters,  as  Munster  doth  that  of  the  Valesians 
in  the  AlpsJ"^  ^  The  learned  John  Ray,  in  his  tract  on 
The  Wisdom  of  God,  considered  the  effect  of  great 
numbers  of  people  being  born  ^'with  a  Bavarian  poke 
under  our  chins."*  And  in  his  Travels  through  the 
LoW'Countries,  Germany^  etc.,  he  says  of  the  Valley 
of  the  Mur,  in  Styria :  "  We  saw  in  these  parts  many 
men  and  women  with  large  swellings  under  their  chins 
or  on  their  throats,  called,  in  Latin^  or  rather  in  Greeks 
Bronchocelej  by  some  in  English,  Bavarian  Pokes. 
Some  of  them  were  single,  others  double  and  treble."^ 
Mr.  Hunter  proposed  to  alter  the  text  by  reading 
"Each  putter-out  on  five  for  one"  in  place  of  "Each 
putter-^utof  five  for  one";  but  the  change  was  hardly 
required.  The  meaning  is  that  every  traveller  who  had 
taken  out  a  five-for-one  insurance  would  warrant  the 
existence  of  headless  Indians  and  pouched  mountain- 
eers. Mr.  Hunter  illustrated  the  nature  of  such  a 
contract  by  the  case  of  Mr.  Henry  Moryson,  who  paid 
;C400  to  receive  three  times  as  much  if  he  returned 
safely  from  Constantinople  and  Jerusalem ;  and  another 
example  is  taken  from  the  confused  mass  of  memoranda 
known  as  the  Commonplace  Book  of  John  Sanderson, 
a  Turkey  Merchant,  preserved  among  the  Lansdowne 
MSS.  in  the  British  Museum.^  The  details  of  such  an 
insurance  will  be  found  in  William  West's  collection 
of  precedents,  entitled  Symboleographie.  The  traveller 
paid  down  a  sum  of  money  which  the  assuring  party 
might  invest  for  his  own  benefit,  and  the  latter  gave 

^  Burton,  AnaL  of  MeLy  part  i.  sect.  ii.  mem.  3,  sub.  i  (ed.  Shilleto, 
voL  L  p.  257).  *  Ray,  Wisdom  of  God,  3rd  ed.,  1701,  p.  2j6u 

*  Ray,  Travels  through  the  Low-Countries,  etc.,  2nd  ed.,  1738,  L  121. 

*  Hunter,  AVsr  IllustrationSf  u  140-1,  note. 


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368    PRODUCTION  OF   **THE  TEMPEST" 

a  bond  to  pay  the  traveller  a  larger  sum  on  his  return, 
within  a  stated  time,  and  with  proper  evidence  that  he 
had  made  the  voyage,^  Such  wagering  contracts  were 
fashionable  in  the  time  of  Elizabeth  and  James  I.,  but 
died  out  in  the  following  reign.  There  is  usually  some 
humorous  exaggeration  in  the  literary  references  to 
this  practice.  Thus  John  Davies,  in  his  forty-second 
Epigram,  writes  of  the  dangers  of  Italy : 

'*  Lycus  who  lately  hath  to  Venice  gone, 
Shall  if  he  do  return  have  three  for  one. " 

The  ^^five-foT'One^^  in  The  Tempest  may  be  intended 
as  a  reference  to  Every  Man  out  of  his  Humour^  where 
Jonson's  ingenious  knight  said,  ''I  am  determined 
to  put  forth  some  five  thousand  pound,  to  be  paid 
me  five  for  one,  upon  the  return  of  myself,  my  wife, 
and  my  dog  from  the  Turk's  Court  in  Constantinople. 
...  If  we  be  successful,  why,  there  will  be  five-and- 
twenty  thousand  pound  to  entertain  time  withal."^ 


II 

'<  THE  TEMPEST  "  AND  JONSON'S  *'  EVERY  MAN  IN  HIS  HUMOUR  " 
— FLORIO'S   "MONTAIGNE" — "  LOVE's  LABOUR'S  WON" 

Mr.  Hunter  argued  that  The  Tempest  was  older  than 
Jonson's  Every  Man  in  his  HumouVy  and  that  the  last- 
named  play  was  acted  in  1597.  Jonson's  own  statement 
was  as  follows :  '^This  Comedy  was  first  acted  in  1598 
by  the  Lord  Chamberlain's  Servants :  the  principal 
Comedians  were  Will.  Shakespeare,  Ric.  Burbage, 
etc."  It  appears  by  Henslowe's  note- books  at  Dulwich, 
that  a  play  called  Humours  was  acted  in  1597  at  the 
Rose,  by  the  Lord  Admiral's  Servants,  and  it  is  now 

>  SymboUcgraphiey  1605.  See  Halliwell-Phillipps,  Memoranda  on 
Shakespeare's  Tempest 

^  Jonson,  Every  Man  out  of  his  Humour,  ii.  i. 


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JONSON'S  SUPPOSED  ATTACK         369 

allowed  on  all  hands  that  this  was  a  poor  play  by  Chap- 
man, called  The  Humonms  Day^s  Mirth?-  Mr.  GifFord 
had  made  the  mistake  in  his  Memoirs  of  Jonsoriy^  and 
Mr.  Hunter  did  not  profess  to  have  found  any  better 
authority ;  he  maintained  that  The  Tempest  was  plainly 
satirised  in  the  prologue  to  Jonson's  play,  though  it  is 
difficult  to  imagine  that  an  author  would  attack  one  of 
his  principal  comedians.^  But  there  is  no  proof  that 
the  prologue  was  as  old  as  the  play.  It  did  not  appear  in 
the  surreptitious  quarto  of  1601,  but  was  printed  in  the 
authorised  Works  of  1616.  It  contains  a  reference  to 
the  Chorus  in  King  Henry  F.,  as  "wafting"  of  the 
audience  across  the  sea ;  and  it  appears  to  have  been 
proved  by  Mr.  Fleay,  in  his  Life  and  Work  of  Shake- 
spearej  that  this  historical  play  was  first  acted  in  1599.* 
The  prologue,  moreover,  so  arrogantly  claims  to  show 
a  pattern  for  all  other  comedies,  that  we  must  suppose 
Jonson  to  have  earned  a  success  before  he  added  his 
self-praise.  The  squibs,  rolled  bullets,  and  "tempestu- 
ous drum  "  would  suit  many  other  tempests  beside  that 
storm  which  Shakespeare  "taught  to  roar/'*    It  was 

^  Henslowe's   Diary^  ed.   Collier.     See  F.   G.    Fleay,   Biographiccd 

ChronicU  of  English  Dramay  1891,  i.  55. 

^  Memoirs  of  Jonson^  prefatory  to  one  volume  edition  of  plays  (1838),  p.  8. 

*  Hunter,  Disquisition  on  "  Tempest"  p.  81 ;  New  Illustrations,  i.  136-9. 

^  F.  G.  Fleay,  Chronicle  History  of ,  .  .  Shakespeare,^^,  204-6.    See  also 

Biographical  Chronicle,  u,s,,  u  358,  in  which  the  date  of  the  revised 

play  is  taken  as  April,  1601. 

B  The  lines  referred  to  are  as  follows.    Jonson  blames  the  *'  ill  customs 
of  the  age  " : 

'<  To  make  a  child  now  swaddled,  to  proceed 
Man,  and  then  shoot  up,  in  one  beard  and  weed. 
Past  threescore  years  ;  or,  with  three  rusty  swords, 
And  help  of  some  few  foot  and  half-foot  words 
Fight  over  York  and  Lancaster's  long  jars. 
And  in  the  tyring-house  bring  wounds  to  scars. 
He  rather  prays  you  will  be  pleased  to  see 
One  such  to-day,  as  other  plays  should  be ; 
Where  neither  chorus  wafts  you  o'er  the  seas. 
Nor  creaking  throne  comes  down  the  boys  to  please. 
Nor  nimble  squib  is  seen  to  make  afeard 
The  gentlewomen ;  nor  roll'd  bullet  heard 
2  B 


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370    PRODUCTION  OF  "THE  TEMPEST" 

urged,  however,  that  two  passages  in  the  prologue  must 
have  been  intended  as  attacks  upon  Shakespeare.^  The 
first  was  the  line  which,  in  Mr.  Hunter's  view,  must  have 
referred  to  the  **  descent  of  Juno  ":  **Nor  creaking 
throne  comes  down  the  boys  to  please."  We  do  not 
know  that  this  device  was  employed  in  the  miniature 
masque  of  The  Tempest;  but  it  is  arguable  that  the 
"creaking  throne ''  was  Jonson's  description  of  the 
chariot  drawn  by  peacocks;  it  is  clear,  however,  that 
the  occurrence  of  the  phrase  in  Jonson's  prologue  does 
not  in  any  way  determine  Ae  date  of  The  Tempest. 
The  other  passage  related  to  "monsters, "and  therefore, 
it  was  urged,  could  be  nothing  but  an  allusion  Xxy 
Prosperous  "servant-monster."  "You  that  have  so 
grac'd  monsters,  may  like  men."  "Who  but  Caliban 
can  be  intended?"  asked  the  critic.  An  answer  might 
be  found  in  Jonson's  own  comedy ;  for  young  Knowell 
says,  "  Here  within  this  place  is  to  be  seen  the  true, 
rare,  and  accoptiplished  monster,  or  miracle  of  nature, 
which  is  all  one."^  In  the  book  of  Mandevile  we  find  a 
definition:  "A  monster  is  a  thing  deformed  against 
kind  both  of  man  or  of  beast,  or  of  anything  else.'*' 
The  word  was  used  in  a  very  general  way,  to  signify 
any  birth  or  living  creature  degenerating  from  the 
proper  form  of  its  species ;   it  was  used  for  any  large 

To  say,  it  thunders ;  nor  tempestuous  drum 
Rumbles,  to  tell  you  when  the  storm  doth  come ; 
But  deeds,  and  languag^e,  such  as  men  do  use. 
And  persons,  such  as  comedy  would  choose. 
When  she  would  show  an  imag^e  of  the  times, 
And  sport  with  human  follies,  not  with  crimes. 
Except  we  make  them  such,  by  loving  still 
Our  popular  errors,  when  we  know  they're  ill. 
I  mean  such  errors  as  you'll  all  confess, 
By  laughing  at  them,  they  deserve  no  less : 
Which,  when  you  heartily  do,  there's  hope  left  then 
You,  that  have  so  grac'd  monsters,  may  like  men." 

*  The  reference  to  "  York  and  Lancaster's  long  jars  "  is  mone  to  th« 
point  than  either  reference  in  question. 

■  Every  Man  in  his  /fumour,  i.  2. 

*  Mandevile,  u,s,,  ch.  v.  p.  47. 


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SHAKESPEARE  AND  FLORIO  371 

wild  beast,  and  for  the  tame  beasts  shown  by  the 
'^master  of  the  monsters"  at  a  fair.  In  the  Histoire 
Naturelle  des  lies  Antilles y  published  by  Leers  of 
Rotterdam  in  1658,  we  are  told  to  distinguish  whales 
from  sea-monsters,  the  latter  term  taking  in  all  ugly 
and  dangerous  creatures  such  as  porpoises,  manatees, 
sharks,  saw-fish,  and  sword-fish.^  We  are  therefore  at 
liberty  to  conjecture  that  Jonson's  line  referred  to  mon- 
strosities in  general,  and  was  not  specially  directed 
against  Caliban. 

One  of  Mr.  Hunter's  chief  difiiculties  lay  in  the  fact 
that  Shakespeare  had  quoted  freely  from  Florio's 
Montaigne.  Hardly  any  of  the  Essays  had  been  trans- 
lated by  John  Florio  in  1600,  and  his  book  was  not 
published  till  1603.  Mr.  Hunter  suggested  that  the 
passages  used  in  TTie  Tempest  might  have  been  cir- 
culated in  manuscript  for  several  years  before  they 
were  published.  He  supposed  that  Shakespeare  was 
Florio's  pupil  in  French  and  Italian,  or,  at  any  rate, 
knew  Florio  personally.^  He  did  not  explain  why 
Shakespeare  should  be  allowed  to  ornament  his  play 
with  long  extracts  from  the  unpublished  work.  Mr. 
Hunter  quoted  the  Essays  of  Sir  William  Cornwallis 
as  direct  proof  that  the  whole  or  part  of  Florio's  trans- 
lation was  known  some  years  before  i6oa  These  Essays 
were  printed  in  that  year,  but  had  been  in  private 
circulation  for  some  years  previously.  We  are  told  that 
Cornwallis  was  ^^a  pupil  of  Florio's,"  but  this  seems  to 
be  a  matter  of  inference.  He  did  not  name  Florio, 
but  said  that  he  had  seen  various  passages  from  Mon- 
taigne translated:  <^they  that  understand  both  lan- 
guages say  very  well  done" ;  "it  is  done  by  a  fellow 
less  beholding  to  nature  for  his  fortune  than  his  wit, 
yet  lesser  for  his  face  than  his  fortune.  The  truth  is, 
he  looks  more  like  a  good  fellow  than  a  wise  man  ;  and 

^  L.  de  Poincy,  Histoire  natureUe  €t  maraU  des  lies  Antilles,  and  ed. 
1665,  p.  19a  '  Hunter,  Nev  lUustratums^  L  146. 


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372    PRODUCTION  OF  "THE  TEMPEST" 

yet  he  is  wise  beyond  either  his  fortune  or  education."^ 
Florio's  portrait,  by  Hole,  taken  at  the  age  of  fifty- 
eight,  is  prefixed  to  the  second  edition  of  his  Italian 
Dictionary^  1611* 

Another  difficulty  lay  in  the  omission  of  The  Tempest 
from  the  well-known  lists  of  Shakespeare's  plays  in  the 
" noted  school-book"  by  Meres,  called  PaUadis  Tamia; 
or.  Wits  Treasury.  This  book  was  published  in  1598. 
For  Shakespeare's  excellence  in  comedy  Meres  called 
to  witness  The  Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona^  The  Comedy 
of  Errors,  A  Midsummer  Nighfs  Dream^  The  Merchant 
of  Venice,  Lovers  Labout^s  Lost,  and  another  play 
called  Lovers  Labour^s  Won.*  Meres  seems  to  have 
been  careless  about  the  titles,  writing  **  Errors,"  "  Love 
Labours  Lost,"  and  "Love  Labours  Won";  but  it  is 
only  as  to  the  last  name  that  controversy  has  arisen.  It 
is  commonly  supposed  that  Dn  Farmer  was  right  in 
identifying  this  play  with  A  IPs  Well  that  Ends  Well; 
but  many  arguments  have  been  adduced  to  show  that 
it  was  The  Taming  of  the  ShreWy  or  Much  Ado  about 
Nothing.  Mr.  Fleay,  in  his  Life  and  Work  of  Shake- 
speare^  adopts  the  view  that  Lovers  Labouf^s  Won 
appeared  in  its  first  form  in  1590,  and  was  altered  for 
a  Court  performance  at  Christmas,  1596 ;  and  that  in 
the  following  year,  or  early  in  1598,  the  play,  as  finally 
altered,  was  produced  as  Much  Ado  About  Nothing.^ 
Mr.  Hunter,  however,  was  compelled  by  his  theory  to 
assert  that  Lovers  Labout^s  Won  was  The  Tempest  under 
another  title.  According  to  his  argument,  however, 
the  title  should  be  "Love-labours  win,"  or  "Love- 
labours  have  won."  Prospero,  it  is  said,  makes  trial 
of  Ferdinand's  lave  by  imposing  certain  labours.  "  The 
particular  kind  of  labour  is  the  placing  in  a  pile  logs  of 
firewood.     He  serves  in  this  as  Jacob  did  for  Rachel, 

^  Comwallis,  Essays ^  p.  99,  quoted  by  Hunter,  ««.5.,  pp.  145-^. 

2  See  reprint  by  Arber,  English  Garner^  (ed  1897),  ii.  98. 

°  ¥\esiyf\Chronicle  History  of ,  .  .  Shaktspeartt  1886,  pp.  104,  134^  204-5. 


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''LOVE'S  LABOUR'S  WON"  373 

winning  his  bride  from  her  austere  father  by  them  .  •  . 
and  thus  his  love  labours  win  the  consent  of  Prospero 
to  their  union."  ^  He  quotes  the  speech  of  the  *'  patient 
log-man,"  and  Miranda's  tender  offers  of  help. 
''There  be  some  sports  are  painful";  but  then  the 
hard  work  is  part  of  the  amusement,  or  the  player  may 
trim  the  balance  by  setting  ofif  the  work  against  the 
pleasure.     But  this  mean  slavery  would  be  as  heavy  as 

it  is  odious. 

"But 
The  mistress  which  I  serve  quickens  what's  dead 
And  makes  my  labours  pleasures  : 

.  .  .  My  sweet  mistress 
Weeps  when  she  sees  me  work,  and  says,  such  baseness 
Had  never  like  executor.     I  forget : 
But  these  sweet  thoughts  do  even  refresh  my  labours, 
Most  busy,  lest  when  I  do  it."^ 

In  the  First  Folio  there  is  a  comma  after  biisy,  which 
seems  to  be  a  mere  clerical  error.  The  Second  reads 
^^leasl'*  for  ^^lest"i  but  these  forms  are  sometimes 
treated  as  equivalent ;  in  the  Charge  of  a  Court-leet, 
for  instance,  written  about  1572,  and  now  in  the 
writer's  possession,  one  paragraph  begins:  "Least 
that  easy  forgiveness  do  give  other  occasion  to  do 
evil."  Theobald's  invention  of  "busy-less"  for  "not- 
busy"  is  chiefly  remarkable  as  having  been  accepted 
by  Dr.  Johnson,  who  even  printed  the  word  in  his 
Dictionary.  The  meaning  of  the  much-disputed  pass- 
age may  be  that  Ferdinand's  labours  and  thoughts  are 
personified.  The  labours  are  cheered  and  refreshed  by 
the  sweet  thoughts,  and  work  best  in  their  presence ; 
but  they  do  least  when  Ferdinand  turns  from  his 
thoughts  and  resumes  the  control  of  the  work.' 

>  Hunter,  u. 5.,  p.  135.  He  adds:  "Not  win  the  willing  consent  of 
Miranda,  as  I  have  been  foolishly  represented  as  contending." 

•  See  Tempest^  iii.  i,  1-15. 

'  But  see  Mr.  Morton  Luce's  useful  note  in  his  edition  of  The  Tempesty 
1902,  where  ample  evidence  is  given  on  behalf  of  the  First  Folio  reading. 


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374    PRODUCTION  OF  "THE   TEMPEST" 


III 

LAMPEDUSA— A  SUPPOSBD  ORIGINAL  FOR  **THB  TBMPEST  " — THB 
MAGIC  OP   "the  tempest" — SHAKESPEARE   AND  ARIOSTO 

Mr.  Hunter  was  convinced  that  the  labours  in  the 
woodyard  indicated  the  exact  situation  of  Prosperous 
island.  The  scene  of  the  action,  he  believed,  was 
Lampedusa,  a  rocky  island  between  Malta  and  the 
African  coast,  "  not  far  from  the  track  of  a  vessel  sail- 
ing from  Tunis  to  Naples."  The  o£Scial  surveys  show 
that  it  is  long,  narrow  in  shape,  and  about  13I  miles 
in  circuit ;  on  which  Mr.  Hunter  declared  that  "  in 
its  dimensions  Lampedusa  is  just  what  we  may  imagine 
Prosperous  Island  to  have  been."^  The  idea  that 
Lampedusa  was  in  Shakespeare's  mind  may  be  fairly 
called  ridiculous.  Mr.  Hunter,  indeed,  attributed  the 
** discovery  "  to  Mr.  Francis  Douce;  but  Mr.  Douce  is 
known  to  have  received  it  from  Mr.  Rodd,  known  as 
''  the  learned  bookseller,"  soon  after  the  appearance  in 
1824  of  Sicily  and  its  Islands ^  by  Admiral  Smyth,  then 
Captain  W.  H.  Smyth,  r.n.  Mr.  Douce  may  have 
accepted  the  suggestion  provisionally,  for  future  con- 
sideration.^ 

Lampedusa  had  been  mentioned  by  Crusius,  other- 
wise Martin  Kraus,  a  Professor  at  Tubingen,  in  his 
TurcchGrceciay  published  at  Basel  in  1584.  He  said 
that  the  nights  at  Lampedusa  were  full  of  a  rabble  of 
spectres;'  but  it  has  not  been  suggested  that  Shake- 
speare was  acquainted  with  his  work.  Mr.  Hunter 
prefers  to  rely  on  the  sailors'  tradition  that  Lampedusa 
was  an  enchanted  island.  Vincenzo  Coronelli,  Geogra- 
pher to  Louis  XIV.,  gave  some  account  of  the  place  in 

^  Hunter,  «.«.,]>.  i6a 

'  Hunter,  tcs.,  ii.  343,  in  '*  Corrections  and  Additions." 

'  Hunter,  i^t.,  L  161 :  "Noctes  ibi  ^pectris  tumultuoue." 


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HUNTER'S  LAMPEDUSA  THEORY     375 

his  Specchio  del  Mare  Mediterraneo.  ^  Alfonso  of  the  Two 
Sicilies  gave  the  island,  then  only  the  haunt  of  a  few 
smugglers  and  vagrants,  to  his  page,  Di  Caro,  with  the 
right  to  build  a  castle  and  to  exercise  baronial  jurisdic- 
tion ;  and  a  tower  was  built,  but  was  never  occupied, 
the  smugglers  having  raised  enough  "horrible  spectres" 
to  frighten  away  this  Baron  of  opira-iouffe.  The 
Turks  were  the  owners  for  some  time,  but  were  turned 
out  in  161 1  by  the  Spaniards,  as  appears  by  Sir  Ralph 
Winwood's  correspondence.^  Lampedusa  belonged 
to  the  Tommasi  family  oi  Palermo  from  1667  till  the 
time  of  Captain  Smyth's  last  visit,  and  afterwards. 
About  the  year  181 2,  Mr.  Fernandez,  a  British  subject, 
took  a  lease  of  the  island,  intending  to  set  up  a  trade  in 
cattle  and  "refreshments"  with  Malta  and  Barbary; 
but  when  Captain  Smyth  saw  him  last,  he  was  living 
with  his  family  near  the  Grotto  in  the  ravine  by  Cala 
Croce;  a  few  labourers,  hiding  about  in  the  other 
"troglodytic  caves,"  made  up  the  rest  of  the  popula- 
tion. " From  the  harbour,"  wrote  Captain  Smyth,  "a 
stout  wall,  erected  at  the  expense  of  Mr.  Fernandez, 
runs  over  in  a  north-west  direction  to  the  opposite 
coast,  entirely  separating  the  broadest  part  of  the 
eastern  end,  which  is  under  cultivation,  from  the  rest 
of  the  island.  The  western  parts  are  covered  with 
dwarf  olives,  and  a  great  variety  of  plants,  so  that  a 
great  deal  of  firewood  is  cut  and  sent  to  Tripoli  and 
Malta;  and  among  this  profusion  there  are  plenty  of 
wild  goats,  that  used  to  annoy  the  farm  considerably, 
until  the  erection  of  the  above-mentioned  wall;  they  still 
find  a  destructive  enemy  in  the  Numidian  crane,  called 
from  its  graceful  gait,  the  damsel ;  these  birds  arrive 

^  Venice,  1698,  part  i.  p.  70,  quoted  by  Hunter,  ibid.  The  details  fol- 
lowing were  borrowed  from  various  sources  by  Captain  W.  H.  Smyth, 
Afgmoir  descriptive  of  the  resources  of  Sicily  and  its  islands^  1824. 

'  Carleton  to  Tumbull,  18  October,  161 1,  in  Winwood,  Memorials^  etc. 
iii.  298. 


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376    PRODUCTION  OF   "THE  TEMPEST" 

in  great  numbers  in  May^  and  delight  to  revel  among 
the  legumes."^  Mr.  Hunter  admits  that  "  Lampedusa 
is  a  deserted  island  or  nearly  so,  and  was  so  in  the  time 
of  Shakespeare  •  .  •  the  Earl  of  Sandwich,  who  visited 
the  island  in  1737,  found  only  one  person  living 
upon  it ;  and,  going  backward  to  the  time  of  Shake- 
speare, earlier  voyagers  and  geographers  give  the  same 
account."'  He  appears  to  have  believed,  nevertheless, 
that  there  was  an  important  trade  in  pine-logs  between 
this  deserted  island  and  Malta  at  the  time  when  The 
Tempest  was  written.  They  must  have  been  pine-logs, 
though  there  are  now  no  pine  woods,  because  Ariel 
was  shut  by  Sycorax  into  a  cloven  pine;  and  by  the 
same  reasoning  there  must  have  been  other  timber, 
because  Prospero  threatened  to  peg  the  sprite  into  the 
cleft  of  a  knotty  oak.^  The  trade  in  pine-logs  is  to  be 
inferred  from  the  labours  imposed  upon  the  Prince, 
and  more  especially  from  the  tender  words  of  Miranda  : 

**  Alas,  now,  pray  you, 
Work  not  so  hard  :  I  would  the  lightning  had 
Burnt  up  those  logs  that  you  are  enjoin'd  to  pile  ! 
Pray,  set  it  down  and  rest  you  :  when  this  burns, 
Twill  weep  for  having  wearied  you."* 

**The  coincidence,"  we  are  told,  **is  very  extra- 
ordinary," and  the  point  of  resemblance  **too  peculiar 
to  have  existed  at  all,"  if  there  was  no  connection 
between  Lampedusa  and  the  island  in  the  play.^  There 
is  proof,  however,  that  no  fuel  trade  in  dwarf-olives,  or 
canes  and  brushwood,  or  in  pine-logs  or  other  hard 
wood,  was  carried  on  between  Malta  and  Lampedusa 
in  Shakespeare's  time,  and  certainly  not  within  the 
half-dozen  years  before  or  after  the  production  of  The 
Tempest.  Mr.  George  Sandys,  the  traveller,  at  one  time 
Treasurer  of  Virginia,  began  a  journey  to  the  Levant 

^  Sm3^h»  op,  cit,,  quoted  at  lengfth  by  Hunter,  Disquisition^  p.  24. 

*  Hunter,  New  lUusirations,  i.  160.  •  Tempest,  u  2,  277,  294-5. 

*  Id.,  iii.  I.  •  Hunter,  u,s.,  p.  i6j. 


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THE   ISLAND  OF   LAMPEDUSA         377 

in  the  year  1610,  and  arrived  at  Malta  on  his  return  in 
the  following  year.  In  1615  he  published  an  interest- 
ing volumei  entitled  A  Relation  of  a  Journey  begun 
A  n :  Dom  :  161  o.  Foure  Bookes,  containing  a  description 
of  the  Turkish  Empire^  etc.  The  countryfolk  in  Malta, 
he  said)  had  a  kind  of  Carline,  or  great  thistle,  used 
with  farmyard  manure,  which  served  them  for  fuel: 
''who  need  not  much  in  a  Clime  so  exceeding  hote." 
For  the  rest,  he  says,  *'  A  country  altogether  champion, 
being  no  other  then  a  rocke  couered  ouer  with  earth, 
but  two  feete  deepe  where  the  deepest;  hauing  few  trees 
but  such  as  beare  fruite,  whereof  of  all  sorts  plentifully 
furnished.    So  that  their  wood  they  haue  from  Sicilia.^^^ 

We  ought  to  take  some  brief  notice  of  the  other 
alleged  coincidences.  Captain  Smyth  said  that  there 
had  been  a  celebrated  recluse,  who  lived  in  the  grotto, 
'*up  a  ravine  in  some  degree  picturesque."*  ''The 
Cell  of  Prospero  is  made  by  Shakespeare,  perhaps 
accidentally,  picturesque,  by  shading  it  with  line-trees"; 
and  these  line-trees,  or  lindens,  are  described  by  Hunter 
a  little  later  as  a  grove  in  which  we  may  imagine 
"alcoves  and  bowers  of  delight  in  unison  with  the 
character  of  the  young  and  susceptible  Miranda."* 

The  Sicilians  used  to  call  a  man  who  was  ready  to 
serve  any  faith  by  the  nickname  "Hermit  of  Lampe- 
dusa."  The  notion  was  that  the  recluse  served  both 
a  chapel  and  a  mosque  in  his  grotto,  and  lit  up  for 
Cross  or  Crescent,  according  to  the  flag  shown  by 
a  ship  entering  the  harbour.  In  this  hermit  Mr.  Hunter 
found  "a  faint  prototype  of  Prospero."  Captain  Smyth 
had  heard  of  another  legend ;  and  this,  too,  according 
to  Mr.  Hunter,  "bears  a  slight  resemblance  to  the 
subject  of  this  Play."  It  is,  as  he  points  out,  the 
subject  of  Wieland's   poem  of  Klelia  und  Sinibald. 

^  Sandys,  A  /delation,  etc,  u.s,,  p.  228. 

^  Smyth,  quoted  by  Hunter,  Disquisition,  p.  34. 

^  Hunter,  New  Illustrations,  i.  162,  177. 


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378    PRODUCTION  OF   "THE  TEMPEST" 

Rosina  and  Clelia,  two  ladies  of  Palermo^  were  washed 
ashore  from  a  wreck,  and  on  the  island  they  found  two 
hermits — Guido  and  Sinibald — ^who  were  glad  to  re- 
nounce their  vows  for  a  double  wedding.^ 

Caliban,  we  are  reminded,  lived  in  a  cave,  like  one 
of  the  labourers  engaged  by  Mr.  Fernandez.  We  have 
another  allusion  to  these  caves  in  the  conversation 
between  the  clowns  concerning  the  wine : 

•*  Trinculo,    O  Stephano,  hast  any  more  of  this? 
'*  Stephana.  The  whole  butt,  man ;  my  cellar  is  in  a  rock  by 
the  seaside  where  my  wine  is  hid."  ^ 

Coronelli  asserted  that  the  Turks,  if  they  found  the 
place  empty,  always  left  a  present.  *  *  They  are  governed 
by  a  ridiculous  superstitious  idea  that  no  one  would  be 
able  to  go  out  of  the  island  who  did  not  leave  some- 
thing there,  or  who  had  the  hardihood  to  take  away  the 
merest  trifle  " ;  and  he  added  that  the  Knights  of  Malta 
went  every  year  with  their  galleys,  and  took  back  to 
Malta  the  ofiFerings  from  the  chapel  for  the  support  of 
their  "Hospital  for  the  Infirm."*  Mr.  Hunter  compares 
with  this  "one  mode  of  the  operations  of  Prospero." 
Ariel  was  asked  how  fared  the  King  and  his  followers, 

and  he  replies : 

*'  All  prisoners,  sir, 
In  the  line-grove  which  weather-fends  your  cell ; 
They  cannot  budge  till  your  release.     The  King, 
His  brother  and  yours,  abide  all  three  distracted 
And  the  remainder  mourning  over  them, 
Brimful  of  sorrow  and  dismay,"* 

A  good  account  of  the  grotto  was  given  by  Jean  de 
Th6venot  in  the  second  part  of  his  Voyages  au  Levant^ 

^  Hunter,  u,s.,  p.  163.  '  ItLyp.  162 ;  Tempest,  ii.  2,  136-S. 

'  Coronelli,  Specckio  del  Mare.  Cf.  Crusius,  as  quoted  by  Hunter, 
Disguisitian,  p.  20 :  "  Eodem  modo  in  altera  tempii  parte  a  Turcis  obla- 
tiones  fiunt  Aiunt  qui  non  offerat  aut  aliquod  oblati  auferat,  nee  restituit, 
non  posse  ab  insula  abire." 

^  Hunter,  New  IllusinUUns,  i.  161 ;  Tempest,  v.  i,  9*i4. 


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TRAVELLERS  ON   LAMPEDUSA        379 

translated  into  English  by  D.  Lovell  in  1687.  His  vessel 
passed  close  to  Lampedusa  in  February,  1659.  'I'hey  did 
not  land,  because  the  only  inhabitants  were  the  rabbits: 
^*  IPest  habitie  que  de  connilsy  Some  on  board  had 
been  in  the  harbour  and  had  seen  the  statue  and  the 
shrine.  There  was  a  little  chapel  with  an  image  of  Our 
Lady  of  the  Grotto,  venerated  by  Christians  and  Turks 
alike.  In  front  of  the  image  stood  an  altar  with  money 
on  it,  but  the  remaining  space  was  like  a  marine  store. 
Any  visitor  might  deposit  money  or  goods,  and  he 
would  find  what  he  wanted — arms  and  ammunition, 
biscuit,  wine,  or  oil,  anything  that  he  required  ''down 
to  a  little  needle-case."^ 

Once  a  year  came  the  Malta  galley  and  took  the 
money  from  the  altar  to  the  church  of  Our  Lady  at 
Trapani.  Both  Trapani  and  its  little  dependency  were 
under  the  Archbishop  of  Palermo.*  We  may  remember 
how  Ariosto  confesses  in  the  forty-second  book  of  his 
Orlando  that  he  had  quite  misdescribed  the  island,  as 
Archbishop  Fulgoso  had  justly  complained,  and  that 
the  tournament  could  not  have  taken  place,  because 
there  was  not  *'one  level  foot  of  ground,"  unless  in  the 
course  of  centuries  nature  might  have  caused  some 
great  change  by  earthquake  or  flood.^ 

Th6venot  also  heard  a  story  about  a  ''Christian 
vessel "  that  could  not  for  a  long  time  be  got  out  of  the 
harbour,  until  at  last  it  was  found  that  a  sailor  had 
taken  stores  without  leaving  the  value ;  and  when 
restitution  was   made  the  ship  was  able  to  depart.^ 

^  J.  de  Th^venot,  Voyage  fait  au  Lrvant,  1664,  vol.  i.  part  ii.,  pp.  537-8. 

'  Trapani  was  raised  to  the  rank  of  a  bishopric  (suffragan  to  Palermo) 
31st  May,  1844  (Gams,  Series  Episafporuniy  1873,  p.  956).  Before  the 
Saracen  conquest  there  had  been  a  bishop  of  Drepanum. 

*  Orlando  Fur.^  canto  xlii.  20-1 : 

'*  I'isola  si  fiera, 
Montuosa  e  inegual  ritrov6  tanto, 
Che  non  k,  dice,  in  tutto  il  luogo  strano, 
Ove  un  sol  pi^  si  possa  metter  piano,"  etc. 

*  J.  de  Th^venot,  «.j.,  p.  538^ 


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38o    PRODUCTION  OF  "THE  TEMPEST" 

These  legends  of  the  grotto  look  like  a  survival  from 
ancient  folk-lore.  The  Scholiast  in  ApoUonius  Rhodius 
preserved  a  story  told  by  Pytheas  of  MarseilleSi  in 
the  fourth  century  b.c.,  to  the  following  efifect:  "In 
Lipari  and  Stromboli  the  God  of  Fire  seems  to 
dwell)  for  one  hears  the  roar  of  flame  and  a  terrible 
bellowing,  and  it  was  said  from  old  times  that  any- 
one might  leave  unwrought  iron  there,  with  some 
money,  and  next  day  he  would  find  a  sword  or  any 
implement  that  he  desired."*  In  Dr.  Thurnam's  tract 
on  Wayland  Smith  we  find  a  similar  legend  about  the 
great  cromlech  at  Ashbury:  "At  this  place  lived 
formerly  an  invisible  smith,  and  if  a  traveller's  horse 
had  lost  a  shoe  upon  the  road,  he  had  no  more  to  do 
than  to  bring  the  horse  to  this  place,  with  a  piece 
of  money,  and  leaving  both  there  for  a  time,  he  might 
come  again  and  find  the  money  gone,  but  the  horse 
shod."  A  similar  story  was  current  in  Oldenburg, 
where  the  smith  was  known  as  "the  Hiller.^*  Many 
instances  of  a  somewhat  similar  nature  have  been 
collected  by  M.  Dupont  in  V Homme  pendant  les  Ages 
de  la  Pierre^  Behren  in  Hercynia  Curiosa^  Professor 
Boyd-Dawkins  in  Cave-Bunting,  and  Keightley  in  his 
Faity  Mythology,  under  Frensham,  Surrey,  as  to  leaving 
money  at  the  mouth  of  a  cave,  and  finding  what  was 
wanted  spread  out  a  short  time  after. 

Mr.  Hunter  endeavoured  to  show  how  Shakespeare 
became  acquainted  with  Lampedusa.  In  the  first  place, 
he  pointed  out  that  all  the  romantic  plays,  with  two 
exceptions,  were  known  to  be  based  on  existing  stories, 
which  in  several  cases  were  not  of  home  growth,  but 
the  work  of  foreign  invention.  These  exceptions  were 
Love's  Labouf^s  Lost  and  TTie  Tempest;  and  the  fact  was 
the  more  remarkable,  because  both  of  them  seemed  to 

^  Scholia  ex  Codice  Parisiensi  in  Apollonii  Arganauticis  iv.  761  (ed. 
Brunck,  18x3,  iL  299-500).     The  scholiaist  adds :  *'  TaOra  ^0-1  IIvAlat  iv 


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HISTORICAL  REFERENCES  381 

be  ^'offshoots  from  a  stock  of  genuine  history."  The 
discussion  of  the  French  King's  contract  in  the  former 
play  reads  as  if  it  were  some  vague  reminiscence  of  a 
chronicle,  and  in  Mr.  Hunter's  opinion  the  story  of  The 
Tempest  showed  some  distorted  reference  to  the  history 
of  Naples  and  Milan.  '^But  still/'  he  said,  'through 
the  mist  we  can  discern  the  real  persons  who  were  in 
the  mind  of  the  author,  and  some  of  the  real  events 
which  are  the  basis  of  his  fable."  ^  One  proof  is  ad- 
duced to  show  that  The  Tempest  is  ^'a  translated,  not 
an  original,  composition."  Mr.  Hunter  refers  us  to 
Antonio's  exaggerated  speech  about  Queen  Claribel : 

''  She  that  is  queen  of  Tunis  ;  she  that  dwells 
Ten  leagues  beyond  man's  life  ;  she  that  from  Naples 
Can  have  no  note,  unless  the  sun  were  post — 
The  man-i'-the-moon's  too  slow — till  new-born  chins 
Be  rough  and  razorable."' 

'^  Man's-life,"  he  suggested,  was  the  name  of  ao 
African  city  which  was  turned  into  English  by  an 
^^  erroneous  principle  of  translation  "  ;  adding  that  Leo 
Africanus  wrote  of  a  city  south  of  Tunis,  known  by 
the  name  of  Zod^  which  was  probably  the  place  in 
question.^  The  illustration  was  somewhat  unfortunate, 
because  Leo  does  not  mention  any  town  or  city  called 
either  Zoa  or  Zoe ;  but  the  place  at  which  Mr.  Hunter 
pointed  was  called  Zoara^  or  Ztuigha^  a  coast  town  in 
Tripoli,  nowhere  near  the  city  of  Tunis,  but  distant 
about  twelve  miles  from  the  present  capital,  and  close 
to  the  ruins  of  old  Tripoli.  The  other  examples  of  his 
^'principle  of  translation"  are  equally  unimportant. 
He  found  a  place  called  "  Evil-town "  in  the  Travels 
of  Mandevile.  Then  we  have  ^^ Mars-hill"  for  the 
Areopagus  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles;  but  Shake- 
speare, one  may  observe,  would  have  been  more 
familiar  with  another  form ;  the  reading  of  the  Geneva 

^  Hunter,  «.5.,  p.  167.  '  Tempest^  ii.  i,  346-5a 

'  Hunter,  «.5.|  p.  166. 


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382    PRODUCTION   OF   **THE  TEMPEST" 

version  being,  They  **broght  hym  into  Mars  strete," 
with  a  note,  ^'This  was  a  place  called,  as  you  would 
say,  Mars  Hill,  where  the  Judges  sate."^  Another 
example  was  taken  from  The  Comedy  of  Errors^  where 
''the  Place  of  Depth  "  is  put  forward  as  a  translation 
of  Barathrum;  but  the  context  is  in  favour  of  the 
accepted  reading,  ''  place  of  death  and  sorry  execution, 
behind  the  ditches  of  the  abbey  here."*  The  last 
example  is  the  most  appropriate ;  for  ViUafranca  was 
evidently  the  original  of  ''  Old  Free-town,  our  common 
judgement- place,"  to  which  the  Prince  summoned 
Capulet  and  Montague.^ 

The  Tempesty  then,  is  alleged  to  contain  a  distorted 
kind  of  history ;  and  the  same  may  be  said  of  Loroe^s 
Labour^ s  Lost;  and  therefore,  said  Mr.  Hunter,  "there 
is  great  reason  to  conclude  that  the  stories  on  which 
Shakespeare  wrought  in  both  are  in  one  and  the  same 
book."^  This  seems  to  be  the  essential  fallacy  on 
which  the  whole  argument  depends.  He  assumes  the 
existence  of  a  single  volume  without  a  vestige  of  proof 
or  of  any  presumption  of  probability. 

The  imaginary  book  is  only  a  mirage  of  the  brain. 
Shakespeare  made  mistakes,  if  he  was  trying  to  copy 
the  real  history  of  Milan  ;  he  always  copied  something  ; 
and  therefore  there  must  have  been  a  prototype  con- 
taining the  same  mistakes.  He  was  quite  as  much  at 
sea  in  his  history  of  France  and  Navarre  ;  and  therefore 
he  must  have  taken  it  from  the  same  source.  It  follows 
that  the  volume  containing  all  these  blunders,  or  an 
English  translation  of  it,  must  have  been  in  Shakespeare's 
possession  as  early  as  1585,  or  whenever  Lovers  Labour^ s 
Lost  was  first  produced.     No  such  translation  is  men- 


^  Acts  xviL  19.    T3mdale,  1534,  has  "  Marsestrete "  ;  Cranmer,  1539, 
'  Marce  strete  "  (texts  in  English  Hexapla^  Bag-ster,  1841). 
2  Comedy  of  Errors^  v.  i,  12 1-2. 

^  Romeo  and  Juliet^  L  i,  109.     See  Hunter,  h^s.^  p.  166. 
•  Hunter,  ibid^ 


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ORIGIN  OF  THE   PLAY  383 

tioned  in  the  Stationer's  Registers  or  elsewhere ;  nor, 
indeed,  has  any  proof  been  found  that  the  original  ever 
existed.  **In  England,"  said  the  critic,  **it  is  in  vain 
now  to  hope  to  find  such  a  volume."  He  wished  that 
those  who  had  access  to  the  popular  literature  of  France, 
Navarre,  and  Italy  would  exert  themselves  to  find  the 
original  volume:  ^^That  such  a  book  once  existed 
there  cannot  be  a  reasonable  doubt :  that  every  copy  of 
an  English  translation  should  have  perished,  is  a 
possibility  which  the  history  of  the  popular  literature 
of  England  will  forbid  any  person  from  doubting.  In 
its  native  language,  however,  such  a  book  may  still,  I 
trust,  be  existing."^ 

Mr.  William  Collins,  the  poet,  was  next  cited  as  a 
witness  to  prove  that  the  magic  of  The  Tempest^  apart 
from  the  storm,  was  derived  from  an  Italian  romance. 
Now  Collins,  said  Dr.  Johnson,  was  ^'a  man  of  ex- 
tensive literature."  He  knew  "the  learned  tongues," 
French,  Italian,  and  Spanish,  and  had  studied  all  the 
fiction  that  he  could  find  in  those  languages.  "He 
loved  fairies,  genii,  giants,  and  monsters ;  he  delighted 
to  rove  through  the  meanders  of  enchantment,  to  gaze 
on  the  magnificence  of  golden  palaces,  to  repose  by  the 
water-falls  of  Elysian  gardens."  The  latter  part  of  his 
life,  says  Dr.  Johnson,  "cannot  be  remembered  but 
with  pity  and  sadness."  For  some  years  before  his 
death  in  1756  his  mind  became  oppressed  by  "a  general 
laxity  and  feebleness  " ;  and,  after  being  some  time  in  a 
lunatic  asylum,  he  was  placed  under  the  care  of  his 
sister  at  Chichester,  where  he  lived  in  a  very  depressed 
condition.  Mr.  Thomas  Warton  and  some  other  friends 
used  to  visit  him  there ;  and  they  reported  that  "what 
he  spoke  wanted  neither  judgment  nor  spirit,  but  a  few 
minutes  exhausted  him."'  Among  other  things,  Collins 
told  Mr.  Thomas  Warton  that  he  had  seen  the  novel 

^  Hunter,  w.5.,  p.  169. 

*  Johnson,  Lives  of  Poets,  ed.  Cunningham,  1854,  iii.  283-5. 


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384    PRODUCTION  OF   "THE  TEMPEST" 

"which  principally  appeared  to  have  suggested  the  magi- 
cal part  of  The  Tempests  He  thought  that  it  was  in  a 
booky  printed  in  four  languages,  and  entitled  Aurelio 
and  Isabella;  but  this,  says  Mr.  Hunter,  turns  out  to 
be  a  mistake  ;  "  the  Aurelio  and  Isabella  I  now  possess, 
and  it  has  no  resemblance  whatever  to  the  story  of  The 
Tempest.**^  This  romance  was  written  by  Juan  de 
Flores.  The  full  title,  according  to  Lowndes,  ran  as 
follows:  "The  History  of  Aurelio  and  of  Isabell, 
Daughter  of  the  Kinge  of  Schotlande,  nyewly  trans- 
latede  in  foure  languages,  Frenche,  Italien,  Spanishe, 
and  Inglishe.    Impressa  en  Anuers,  1556,  i2mo."^ 

Mr.  Thomas  Warton  gave  some  account  of  the  matter 
in  his  History  of  English  Poetry.  He  concluded  that 
Shakespeare's  story  was  to  be  found  in  some  old  Italian 
novel,  or,  at  any  rate,  in  some  book  preceding  the  date  of 
The  Tempest.  "  Mr.  Collins,"  he  says,  "  had  searched 
this  subject  with  no  less  fidelity  than  judgment  and  in- 
dustry :  but  his  memory  failing  in  his  last  calamitous 
indisposition,  he  probably  gave  me  the  name  of  one 
novel  for  another."  Moreover,  Mr.  Collins  had  said 
something,  had  "added  a  circumstance,"  leading  us 
to  think  that  the  novel  was  about  "a  chemical  necro- 
mancer "  with  a  demon  at  his  call :  it  might  be  con- 
jectured that  his  name  was  "  Aurelio,"  because  alchemy 
dealt  with  the  making  of  gold.'  Malone  rejected 
the  conclusion  altogether.  He  had  his  own  theory 
about  the  storm,  and  he  thought  that  the  story  of 
Prospero  might  owe  something  to  Greene's  story  of 
Alphonsus;  but  the  limits  were  so  slight  that  Shake- 
speare was  left  in  full  possession  of  "  the  highest  praise 
that  the  most  original  and  transcendent  genius  can 
claim."  Mr.  James  Boswell,  however,  reverted  to  Mr. 
Thomas  Warton's  opinion,  when  he  edited  i\MtVarimiMn 

*  Hunter,  u.*.,  p,  167. 

^  Lowndes,  Bibliographei^ s  Manual^  ed.  Bohn,  1864,  L  88. 

»  Warton,  History  of  English  Poeiryy  sect  Ix.  (ed.  1840,  iiL  386). 


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THE    ''LOST  ORIGINAL"  385 

of  Malone ;  for  Collins^  he  considered^  ''was  much  more 
likely  to  have  confounded  in  his  memory  two  books 
which  he  had  met  with  nearly  at  the  same  time,  than 
to  have  fancied  that  he  had  read  what  existed  only  in 
his  own  imagination."^  Mr.  Hunter  called  this  "a 
just  remark";*  but  we  cannot  help  agreeing  with 
Malone,  who  had  been  pressed  with  the  same  argu- 
ment, that  there  is  no  evidence  of  the  two  books  having 
been  read  about  the  same  time.  Collins,  in  short,  made 
a  mistake,  owing  to  the  weakness  of  his  mind,  and  it 
is  impossible  to  build  up  a  positive  argument  on  what 
he  left  out  or  what  he  might  have  intended  to  say. 

Mr.  Hunter  not  only  believed  in  the  lost  book,  but 
felt  himself  able  to  describe  its  authorship  and  its 
principal  contents.  It  was,  he  believed,  the  production 
of  a  French,  Spanish,  or  Italian  writer,  but  most 
probably  the  work  of  an  Italian,  "  to  whom  the  attri- 
butes, physical  and  metaphysical,  of  the  island  of 
Lampedusa  were  familiarly  known,  as  easily  as  they 
might  be."  By  the  term  "metaphysical  attributes"  he 
may  have  meant  the  apparitions  and  dreams  that  were 
believed  to  haunt  visitors  to  the  enchanted  island.^ 

The  unnamed  writer  was  shown  to  be  singularly  weak 
in  his  Italian  history ;  but  "through  the  mist,"  we  are 
told,  we  can  discern  the  persons  who  were  in  his  mind, 
"and  some  of  the  real  events  which  are  the  basis  of 
his  family."  It  would  be  more  correct  to  say  that  The 
Tempest  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  history  of  Naples 
or  Milan,  except  in  its  use  of  the  familiar  names  of 
Alonzo  and  Ferdinand.  Massimiliano  Sforza,  elder 
son   of   Ludovico  il   Moro,  was  turned  out  of  Milan 

^  Malone,  ed.  Boswell,  xv.  6,  etc.  On  p.  i6  Malone  also  mentions 
tentatively  Dent's  translation  of  Commines,  1596,  pp.  293-4,  where 
Alfonso  II.  of  Naples  is  mentioned  in  connection  with  the  designs  of 
the  Sforzas  against  his  house.  He  suggests  that  Prospero  Colonna  may 
have  furnished  the  suggestion  for  '*  Prospero,"  while  Miranda  may  have 
arisen  from  the  mention  of  a  lord  of  Mirandola. 

*  Hunter,  «.5.,  p.  167.  *  Hunter,  Nevy  Illustrations^  p.  165. 

2  C 


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386    PRODUCTION   OF   **THE   TEMPEST" 

by  the  French  after  the  battle  of  Marignano  in  1515 ; 
his  brother,  Francesco  Sforza,  after  the  battle  of  Bicocca 
in  1522,  began  his  disturbed  career  as  Duke  of  Milan. 
There  is  nothing  like  this  in  The  Tempest^  except  the 
bare  old  news  of  Charles  the  Wrestler  in  As  You 
Like  It:— 

'^  There  is  no  news  at  the  court,  sir,  but  the  old  news  :  that 
is,  the  old  duke  is  banished  by  his  younger  brother  the 
new  duke."  ^ 

Alfonso  of  Naples  gave  up  his  kingdom  to  his  natural 
son  Ferdinand  and  retired  to  Sicily,  where  he  gave 
himself  up  to  ^' study  and  religion,"  but  died  after  a 
few  months.  We  find  nothing  in  the  story  to  remind 
us  of  King  Alonzo  and  the  wily  Sebastian. 

The  anonymous  novelist  is  presented  to  us  as  an 
adept  in  the  '^ Chaldean  Philosophy."  Mr.  Hunter  con- 
sidered that  this  philosophy  came  ^'from  the  very 
depths  of  human  civilization."  He  appears  to  have 
been  ignorant  of  the  history  of  Chaldean  magic  and 
the  Grseco-Egyptian  magic,  which  have  become  familiar 
subjects  since  the  essay  was  written.  His  list  included 
in  one  class  ^'Jannes  and  Jambres,  who  withstood 
Moses,"  King  Solomon,  the  Three  Kings  from  the  East, 
Simon  Magus,  and  those  that  used  '< curious  books"  at 
Ephesus.  He  refers  to  the  mediaeval  fancies  about  the 
enchanter  Virgil ;  but  it  is  difficult  to  follow  the  track 
of  the  argument.  **  There  are  then,"  he  summed  it  up, 
<<a  crowd  of  persons  of  obscure  name  in  the  countries 
of  modern  Europe,  and  especially  about  the  shores  of 
the  Mediterranean,  who  were  professors  of  this  so- 
called  philosophy.  .  •  .  The  Adepts  in  this  philosophy 
were  supposed  to  hold  communication  with  the  spiritual 
world,  and  they  had  their  servant-spirits,  whom  they 

^  As  You  Like  It^  i.  i,  103-5.  ^  ^^^^  fanciful,  if  equally  inconclusive, 
correlation  of  fact  with  fiction  would  be  to  recall  the  usurpation  of 
Ludovico  il  Moro  in  1494  and  its  sanction  by  the  King  of  the  Romans, 
Maximilian  I. 


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HUNTER  ON  CHALDEAN  PHILOSOPHY    387 

bound  in  stones  or  stocks,  from  which  they  knew  how 
to  evoke  them  when  their  services  were  needed.  Fallen 
Angels  they  were  who  had  lost  their  first  estate." 
Prospero,  of  course,  is  taken  as  an  impersonation  of 
the  true  adept,  and  Ariel  as  the  chief  of  the  '<  servant- 
spirits"  under  his  command.^  We  are  informed  that 
The  Tempest  contains  a  good  deal  that  is  Hebraistic^ 
**as  might  be  expected  when  there  was  so  much  of  the 
Chaldee  philosophy."  **The  measure  of  time,  *till 
new-born  chins  are  rough  and  razorable,'  is  quite 
Hebraistic."^  In  one  case  we  gain  a  direct  insight 
into  the  novelist's  mind,  if  we  can  only  accept  these 
Babylonian  reasonings.  Caliban's  form,  not  his  words 
or  acts,  but  his  shape  and  figure,  was  of  ^'Oriental 
origin,"  whether  Philistine,  Hebraist,  or  Chaldee.  As 
to  form,  we  are  told,  Caliban  is  the  god  of  the 
Philistines,  Dagon  the  Fish-god,  who  had  the  body 
of  a  fish,  and  the  head,  hands,  and  feet  of  a  man. 
"  Nothing  can  be  more  precise  than  the  resemblance : 
the  two  are,  in  fact,  one,  as  far  as  form  is  concerned. 
Caliban  is  thus  a  kind  of  tortoise,  the  paddles  expand- 
ing in  arms  and  hands,  legs  and  feet."  Does  not 
Prospero  himself  say,  **Come  forth,  thou  tortoise"? 
This  form,  Mr.  Hunter  assures  us,  is  consistent  with 
everything  that  Caliban  says  or  does;  but  ^Mt  was  a 
difficult  figure  to  manage  on  the  stage,"  as  Shakespeare 
must  have  known  full  well.  Why,  then,  should  he 
have  chosen  it,  if  he  were  not  ** under  constraint"; 
in  other  words,  the  figure  was  ** prescribed"  by  the 
novelist,  whose  mind  had  been  occupied  by  that  Fish- 
god  whose  head  and  hands  were  cut  ofiF  upon  the 
threshold  at  Ashdod.^  Mr.  Hunter  referred  his  readers 
to  Origines  Hebrcece^  the  Antiquities  of  the  Hebrew 
Republic^  by  Thomas  Lewis,  1724-5,  and  to  Selden's 

'  Hunter,  u.5.,  pp.  179-81. 

^  /</.,  p.  183.   Ariel  (p.  181)  is  connected  with  the  Hebrew  name  g^ven 
by  Isaiah  (xxix.  i)  to  Jerusalem  I  '  Hunter,  w.5.,  pp.  183-5. 


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388    PRODUCTION   OF   "THE  TEMPEST" 

treatise  on  the  Syrian  gods  in  the  second  volume  of 
his  works ;  the  latter  was  published  separately  in  1617 
under  the  title  De  Diis  Syriis.  An  extract  is  added 
from  Selden's  letter  to  Jonson,  written  in  1615,  on  the 
rule  against  men  wearing  women's  apparel,  in  which 
the  shape  of  Dagon  was  discussed,  and  legends  from 
Berosus  added,  about  "  Oannes,"  the  Fish-god  of  the 
Euphrates,  ''with  the  body  of  a  fish,  and  one  of  the  heads 
like  a  man's  head,  and  feet  in  its  tail."^  Mr.  Hunter's 
conclusion  from  these  vague  traditions  appears  in  the 
sentences  following.  ''  The  similarity  of  Caliban  and 
Dagon  is  confined  to  form.  I  hold  it  to  be  certain, 
first,  that  the  form  was  not  an  invention  of  the  English 
poet ;  secondly,  that  he  found  it  in  the  story  on  which 
he  wrought  in  this  play ;  and  thirdly,  that  the  original 
constructor  of  the  story  was  versed  in  Chaldee  an- 
tiquities, and  thence  drew  this  strange  and  unnatural 
and  eminently  undramatic  compound."^  Mr.  Hunter 
ascribed  all  Prospero's  magical  powers  to  the  influences 
derived  from  Babylon  :  ''  He  calls  up  splendid  visions : 
at  his  command  the  air  is  filled  with  sweet  music,  or 
with  the  sounds  of  hound  and  horn."^  But  one  may 
remember  that  charms  of  this  kind  were  given  to  brave 
Owen  Glendower,  without  reference  to  any  Eastern 
philosophy : — 

*'  Those  musicians  that  shall  play  to  you 
Hang  in  the  air  a  thousand  leagues  from  hence, 
And  straight  they  shall  be  here  :  sit,  and  attend."^ 

Prospero  raises  or  quells  the  storm,  and  plucks  up 
great  trees  ;  «<  Graves  at  my  command 

Have  waked  their  sleepers  "  ;  * 

but  Mr.  Hunter  acknowledged  that  this  ''rough  magic" 
was  borrowed  from  the  Medea  of  Golding's  translations 
from  Ovid.^    The  Roman  had  addressed  the  spirits  of 

^  Hunter,  ibicL  (note).        >  Ibid. 

•  Id.,  pp.  180-1.  *  I  Henry  IV,,  Hi.  i,  226-8. 

^  Tempest,  v.  i,  48-9.         '  Hunter,  u,s,,  ii.  162  (in  essay  on  Macbeth), 


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PROSPERO'S  MAGIC  POWERS         389 

the  night,  of  the  mountains,  woods,  and  waters; 
Golding  could  not  understand  that  to  every  object 
corresponded  a  spiritual  essence,  or  genius ;  and  he 
solved  the  difficulty  by  addressing  the  incantation  to 
the  familiar  fairies,  or  elves.  "Ye  aires  and  winds,  yee 
elues  of  hilles,  of  brooks,  of  woods  alone.  Of  standing 
lakes,  and  of  the  night  approch  ye  euerichone."^ 
Shakespeare  added  the  fairies  dancing  at  the  margin  of 
the  shore,  the  tiny  forms  that  tread  the  grass  into 
"green  sour  ringlets,"  or  after  curfew  steal  out  to  set 
mushrooms  for  their  midnight  crop.  By  the  help  of 
such  frail  creatures,  "weak  Masters  of  elemental 
force,"  Prospero  had  performed  his  mighty  tasks  : — 

**  I  have  bedimmed 
The  noon-tide  sun,  called  forth  the  mutinous  winds, 
And  'twixt  the  green  sea  and  the  azured  vault 
Set  roaring  war :  to  the  dread  rattling  thunder 
Have  I  given  fire  and  rifted  Jove's  stout  oak 
With  his  own  bolt ;  the  strong-based  promontory 
Have  I  made  shake  and  by  the  spurs  plucked  up 
The  pine  and  cedar  :  graves  at  my  command 
Have  waked  their  sleepers,  oped  and  let  'em  forth, 
By  my  so  potent  art."* 

The  witchcraft  of  Sycorax  is  derived  from  an  equally 
classical  source.  The  witch  of  Algiers  is  a  copy  of  the 
Mussylian  sorceress  who  came  at  Queen  Dido's  call. 
Shakespeare  found  her  attributes  in  the  translation 
of  the  fourth  ^neid  by  Thomas  Phaer.  She  could 
shift  the  trees  of  the  forest,  or  turn  the  flow  of  the 
rivers,  and  alter  the  courses  of  the  stars ;  and  Sycorax 
was  as  strong  a  witch  : 

''  That  could  control  the  moon,  make  flows  and  ebbs, 
And  deal  in  her  command  without  her  power.  "^ 

The  meaning  appears  to  be  that  Sycorax,   like  the 
witches  of  Thessaly,  could  make  the  moon  come  down, 

^  A.  Golding,  The  xv,  Bookes  of  P,  Ovidius  Naso,  etc.,  1584,  bk.  vii. 
p.  9a  2  Temp€stt  V.  1,  3J-50.  ■  Id,,y,  i,  270-1. 


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390    PRODUCTION  OF   *'THE  TEMPEST" 

and  fill  the  estuaries,  and  by  authority  from   below 
could  do  feats  beyond  any  human  power. 

The  oflSce  of  Ariel  was  treated  by  Mr.  Hunter  as  if 
the  airy  spirit  were  an  ordinary  **  familiar."  There 
was  a  common  superstition  that  a  witch  or  conjurer  was 
attended  by  a  demon  in  the  form  of  a  fly,  or  some  such 
creature  ;  and  Paracelsus  used  to  boast  that  he  carried 
a  devil  in  the  pommel  of  his  sword.  Mr.  Hunter 
discusses  the  nature  of  the  call  by  which  the  ^'familiar" 
was  summoned.  He  found  several  instances  in  The 
Tempest.  **The  words,"  he  said,  **are  such  as  Lesbia 
might  have  used  to  her  sparrow,  or  an  Eastern  beauty 
to  a  bird  of  paradise:  *Come,  away,  Servant,  come 
.  .  •  approach,  my  Ariel,  come.' "  In  the  fourth  act 
we  have  it  again  :  **  Now  come,  my  Ariel,  appear ;  and 
pertly";  and  again,  **Come  with  a  thought:  Ariel, 
come  I "  **  The  call,"  he  adds,  "  is  introduced  on  other 
occasions,  and  is  always  in  harmony  with  the  delicate 
form  of  Ariel,  in  which  the  idea  of  a  bee  perhaps  rather 
predominates  than  that  of  any  other  living  thing."  ^ 
This  may  be  founded  on  some  notion  that  Ariel  was  to 
live  '*  under  the  blossom,"  like  the  elf  in  his  **  Bee- 
song,"  instead  of  returning  to  his  elemental  home.* 
But  in  the  play  itself  the  situation  was  far  more  compli- 
cated. When  Prospero  arrived,  the  sprite  was  an  exile 
from  those  airy  confines.  Sycorax  had  fitted  him  with 
a  body  with  nerves  susceptible  of  pain  ;  and  had  thrust 
him,  thus  materialised,  into  the  rift  of  a  cloven  pine. 
The  air  was  full  of  shrieks  and  groans,  repeated  **  as 
fast  as  mill-wheels  strike  "  : 

"  Thy  groans 
Did  make  wolves  howl  and  penetrate  the  breasts 
Of  ever  angry  bears  :  it  was  a  torment 
To  lay  upon  the  damned,  which  Sycorax 
Could  not  again  undo  :  it  was  mine  art, 
When  I  arrived  and  heard  thee,  that  made  gape 
The  pine  and  let  thee  out." 

*  Hunter,  «,$.,  pp.  182-3.  '  Tempest^  v.  1,  93-4- 


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THE  CHARACTER  OF  ARIEL  391 

Sycorax  could  only  perform  the  feat  by  the  help  of  her 
**  potent  ministers,"  and  when  she  died  they  could  not 
undo  their  work.  But  Prospero's  power  was  of  a  higher 
rate.  **Mine  art,"  he  says,  "let  thee  out  Artel.  I 
thank  thee,  Master  "  : 

**  Pros.   If  thou  more  murmur'st,  I  will  rend  an  oak 
And  peg  thee  in  his  knotty  entrails  till 
Thou  hast  howl'd  away  twelve  winters."^ 

It  was  in  a  lost  Italian  story,  as  Mr.  Hunter  imagined, 
that  Shakespeare  found  his  isle  of  Lampedusa ;  and 
being  thus  "carried  there,"  must  have  cast  about  for 
more  information,  and  was  thus,  perhaps,  led  to 
Ariosto.  The  Orlando  Furioso  had  been  turned  into 
English  verse  by  Sir  John  Harington  in  1591 :  and 
in  it  Shakespeare  might  find  the  description  of  a  ship- 
wreck "in  the  seas  about  the  very  group  of  islands 
of  which  Lampedusa  is  one."  Mr.  Hunter  proposed 
to  show  that  the  passage  had  been  read  by  Shakespeare 
shortly  before  preparing  the  opening  scene  of  The 
Tempest.  His  object  was  to  show  that  this  scene  was 
designed  to  exhibit  in  dramatic  action  "the  same 
spectacle  which  Ariosto  had  presented  in  his  epic."^ 
There  is  nothing  strange  in  the  general  idea,  though  it 
is  difficult  to  accept  some  of  the  so-called  coincidences. 
Some  of  them  are  explained  by  the  fact  that  Harington 
had  served  at  sea,  and  tried  to  explain  Italian  terms 
of  art  by  English  phrases.  Mr.  Hunter  had  found 
similarities  which  he  would  not  have  expected  "in  two 
perfectly  independent  compositions."^  In  both  storms 
we  read  of  the  master  and  the  master's  whistle ;  and  it 
seemed  to  him  improbable  that  the  "whistle"  would 
occur  to  the  minds  of  independent  writers.^  In  both 
narratives  the  sails  are  struck,  and  in  both  there  is  a 
"falling  to  prayer  "  at  the  end.     Ariosto's  ship  sprang 

*  /A,  1.  2,  274-96.        '  Hunter,  w.^.,  pp.  169-70,  173.        *  /e^,  p.  173. 

*  See  Tempest^  i.  i,  and  Orlando  Furioso^  tr.  Harington,  1591,  bk.  xli. 
stt.  8-18. 


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392    PRODUCTION  OF   ''THE  TEMPEST" 

a  leak  ;  and  old  Gonzalo  made  a  jest  about  leakiness. 
Even  more  remarkable,  it  is  said,  was  the  contempt  of 
rank  and  royalty  in  both  ;  '*  What  care  I  for  the  name 
of  King  :  get  out  of  my  way,  I  say."  But  this  is  only 
a  paraphrase  of  the  Boatswain's,  who  will  be  patient 
when  the  sea  is  so  : 

"  Hence !    What  care  these  roarers  for  the  name  of  King? 
To  cabin !   silence !    trouble  us  not." 

In  the  Orlando  we  are  told  that  **  of  King  nor  Prince 
no  man  takes  heed  or  note" ;  but  the  ** roarers"  in  The 
Tempest  are  only  the  noisy  waves.  Some  of  the  verbal 
** coincidences"  deserve  very  little  attention.  The 
**cry,"  when  the  ship  was  dashed  to  pieces,  did  knock 
against  Miranda's  "very  heart" ;  the  comment  is  that 
the  words  of  Ariosto  seem  to  have  been  ringing  in  the 
poet's  ears : 

**  Twas  lamentable  then  to  hear  the  cries, 
Of  companies  of  every  sort  confused, 
In  vain  to  heaven  they  lift  their  hands  and  eyes, 
Making  late  vows,  as  in  such  case  is  used."^ 

When  Miranda  was  told  the  story  of  her  father's  exile, 
*'  O  the  heavens  I "  she  cried, 

**  What  foul  play  had  we,  that  we  came  from  thence. 
Or  blessed  was*t  we  did  !  " 

And  her  father  answers  : 

"  Both,  both,  my  girl : 
By  foul  play,  as  thou  say'st,  were  we  heaved  thence. 
But  blessedly  holp  hither."* 

Mr.  Hunter  suggested  that  Shakespeare  got  these 
phrases  from  the  fortieth  book  of  the  Orlando^  where 
Agramant  was  driven  by  another  storm  to  a  harbour 
where  he  found  an  ally  who  promised  assistance  : 

**  Agramant  praised  much  this  offer  kind. 
And  called  it  a  good  and  blessed  storm. 
That  caused  him  such  a  friend  as  this  to  find. 
And  thanks  him  for  his  offer. "  ^ 

*  Tempest^  i.  2,  8-9;  Harington,  xli.  2a     .     ^  Tempest^  i.  2,  59-6J. 
'  Harington,  xl.  47.     Hunter  quoted  the  first  line  inaccurately. 


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SHAKESPEARE  AND   HARINGTON     393 

The  hermit,  again,  who  helped  Ruggiero  to  climb 
the  rock,  could  "allay"  the  waves  with  the  sign  of  the 
cross;  and  Miranda  begged  her  father  to  "allay"  the 
wild  waters,  if  he  had  caused  them  to  roar.^  There  is 
nothing  singular  in  the  word,  which  was  often  used  by 
Shakespeare  in  a  similar  sense ;  but  Mr.  Hunter  argued 
that  a  word  need  not  be  peculiar  to  serve  "  as  an  index  " 
to  a  later  author's  train  of  thought :  "  A  peculiarity  in 
its  use,  or  an  application  of  it  to  the  same  or  similar 
circumstances,  may  do  as  well."  ^  The  nearest  approach 
to  a  real  coincidence  is  to  be  found  by  comparing  the 
flames  in  Ariosto's  storm  with  the  fires  of  Ariel  in  The 
Tempest;  but  Shakespeare  was  probably  familiar  with 
an  account  of  Magellan's  voyage,  which  would  supply 
him  with  all  the  necessary  information.' 

The  slightest  part  of  the  argument  lies  in  the  com- 
parison of  passages  from  Shakespeare  and  Harington, 
very  much  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  former.  When 
the  young  lord-in-waiting  was  consoling  King  Alonzo, 
he  gave  a  minute  account  of  the  prince's  escape  from 
drowning : — 

"  I  saw  him  beat  the  surges  under  him, 
And  ride  upon  their  backs  ;  he  trod  the  water, 
Whose  enmity  he  flung  aside,  and  breasted 
The  surge  most  swoln  that  met  him  ;  his  bold  head 
'Bove  the  contentious  waves  he  kept,  and  oar'd 
Himself  with  his  good  arms  in  lusty  stroke 
To  the  shore,  that  o'er  his  wave-worn  basis  bow'd. 
As  stooping  to  receive  him. "  ^ 

What  is  called  the  "corresponding  passage,"  in  the 

*  Tempest^  i.  2,  2 ;  Harington,  xliii.  178,  where  Uic  word  is  "still," 
not  "allay."  '  Hunter,  «.£.,  p.  173. 

'  Pig-afetta,  Primo  Viaggio  intomo  al  Globo,  included  in  Ramusio, 
Raccolta  delie  NavigoMumi  e  Viaggt,  1588.  A  French  summary  of  Piga- 
fetta's  description  had  appeared  in  1534.  A  translation  of  this  was  added 
by  Richard  Willes  to  his  edition  of  Richard  Eden's  Historie  of  Travayle 
in  the  West  and  East  Indies  ^  1577. 

*  Tempest t  ii.  i,  1 14-21. 


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394    PRODUCTION   OF   "THE  TEMPEST" 

forty-first  book  of  the  Orlando^  shows  us  how  Ruggiero 
"  above  the  water  keeps  his  head  "  : 

''  With  legs  and  arms  he  doth  him  so  behave, 
That  stiil  he  kept  upon  the  floods  aloft, 
He  blows  out  from  his  face  the  boistrous  wave 
That  ready  was  to  overwhelm  him  oft.*'^ 

According  to  Mr.  Hunter,  the  passage  in  The  Tempest 
is  laboured,  **and  betrays  marks  of  effort,"  as  if  the 
writer  was  attempting  "to  rival  a  great  original."* 
"We  have,"  he  said,  "a  similar  correspondence  in 
another  of  the  laboured  passages  in  The  Tempest^  in 
which  he  opens  to  view  the  guiltiness  of  the  conscience 
of  Alonzo  " : 

''  Methought  the  billows  ^poke  and  told  me  of  it ; 
The  winds  did  sing  it  to  me,  and  the  thunder. 
That  deep  and  dreadful  organ-pipe,  pronounced 
The  name  of  Prosper  :  it  did  bass  my  trespass. 
Therefore  my  son  i'  th*  ooze  is  bedded,  and 
ril  seek  him  deeper  than  e'er  plummet  sounded 
And  with  him  there  lie  mudded. "  ^ 

This,  again,  is  said  to  be  written  with  the  same  strained 
effort,  "produced,  perhaps,  by  the  attempt  to  rival  and 
surpass  the  earlier  poet."  * 

^  Haring^ton,  xli.  22.  *  Hunger,  «.s.,  175. 

'  Tempest^  iii.  3,  96-102. 

*  Hunter,  u.s.  The  passage  which  called  forth  this  "attempt"  on 
Shakespeare's  part  is  singularly  weak  in  comparison  with  the  "attempt" 
itself. 


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II.  THE  MARRIAGE  OF  THE  EARL  OF 

ESSEX,  AND  JONSON'S  ^^MASQUE 

OF  HYMEN,"  1606 

I 

ESSEX'S  MARRIAGE — ERRORS  AS  TO  EXACT  NATURE  OF  CERE- 
MONY—MARRIAGE OF  LADY  ESSEX  TO  ROCHESTER,  1613 
— ACCOUNT  OF  THE  CEREMONIES   AND   MASQUES 

ON  Sunday,  the  5th  of  January,  1606,  a  strange 
wedding  was  celebrated  in  the  palace  of  White- 
hall. The  King  and  Queen,  and  all  the  great  people 
of  the  court,  were  assembled  to  see  two  children  united 
in  holy  matrimony.  The  bride  was  a  girl  under 
thirteen,  and  the  bridegroom  about  a  twelvemonth 
older.  The  object  of  the  alliance  was  to  make  some 
amends  for  the  judicial  murder  of  Queen  Elizabeth's 
favourite,  and  for  the  imprisonment  of  his  friend,  Lord 
Southampton,  to  attach  the  remaining  ''Essex  faction " 
to  the  King's  side,  and  incidentally  to  please  more  than 
one  powerful  minister. 

The  bride^  Lady  Frances  Howard,  was  the  younger 
daughter  of  Thomas,  Earl  of  SufiFolk,  then  Lord 
Chamberlain  and  afterwards  Lord  High  Treasurer. 
She  was  a  pretty  child,  and  became  renowned  for  her 
good  looks  before  she  was  seventeen.  Arthur  Wilson, 
her  husband's  **  gentleman,"  wrote  a  history  of  the 
reign,  and  said  that  she  grew  to  be  ''a  beauty  of  the 
greatest  magnitude  in  that  horizon  .  .  .  and  every 
tongue  grew  an  orator  at  that  shrine."^ 

^  Life  and  Reign  of  James  /.,  printed  in  Kennett's  Compleat  History 
0/  England  {ijc6),  vol.  ii.  p.  686,  col.  2. 

395 


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396    PRODUCTION  OF   '*THE  TEMPEST'' 

The  boy  was  Robert  Devereux,  Earl  of  Essex  and  Eu, 
Viscount  Hereford  and  Bourchier,  and  Baron  Ferrers 
of  Chartley  in  the  county  of  Salop,  Bourchier,  and 
Louvain,  his  father's  honours  having  been  restored 
when  the  new  reign  began ;  ^  and  in  course  of  time 
he  attained  a  greater  place  as  His  Excellency  the 
Captain-General  of  the  Armies  of  the  Parliament. 
King  James  disliked  him  for  his  sour  looks ;  perhaps 
he  was  a  little  afraid  of  him.  He  once  said,  ''I  fear 
thee  not,  Essex  I  if  thou  wert  as  well  beloved  as  thy 
father,  and  hadst  forty  thousand  men  at  thy  heels.  "^ 
The  Earl  had  passed  (Quickly  through  Eton  and  Merton, 
and  was  made  Master  of  Arts  when  the  King  visited 
Oxford  in  the  summer  of  1605.'  He  must  have  for- 
gotten all  about  his  degree,  says  his  ^^ gentleman,"  ''or 
he  would  not  have  received  the  same  honour  about 
thirty  years  afterwards."*  While  he  was  still  under 
Sir  Henry  Savile's  tuition  at  Merton,  young  Essex 
showed  a  great  love  for  serious  study;  but  he  also 
excelled  in  outdoor  accomplishments,  especially  at 
fencing  and  pike-practice,  ''at  riding  the  great  horse," 
and  at  tilting  or  running  at  the  ring. 

A  notice  of  the  marriage  is  preserved  in  the  Old 
Cheque-book  of  the  Chapel-Royal  at  Whitehall,  now 
kept  with  the  records  of  the  Chapel-Royal,  St  James's 
Palace.  "The  younge  Earle  of  Essex  was  maryed  to 
Frances  Howard,  daughter  to  the  Earle  of  Suffolke, 
Lo.  Chamberlaine,  in  the  Kinges  Chappell  at  White- 
hall, the  5  or  6  of  January,  1605,^  (the  Kinges  Majestie 
givinge  her  in  maryage),  wher  was  paid  for  fees  to  the 
Deane  of  the  Chappell,  he  maryinge  them,  10  li,  and 
to  the  gentlemen  of  the  Chappell  then  ther  attendinge 
5   li ;    which   mariage   was   solemnized    in   the   third 

'  1 8th  April,  1604.  '  Wilson,  ti.5.,  p.  747,  col.  2. 

'  joth  Augxist,  1605.    Wood,  Ath,  Ox,,  ed.  Bliss,  1813-20,  iii.  19a 

*  In  August,  1636,  /d,f  iii.,  192. 

•  5th  Januaiy,  1606,  N.S. 


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NOTICES  OF  THE   WEDDING  397 

yeare  of  the  Raigne  of  our  Soveraigne  Lord  Kinge 
James."  1 

An  interesting  account  of  the  marriage  is  preserved 
among  the  Cottonian  MSS.  It  was  written  to  Sir 
Robert  Cotton  by  Mr.  John  Pory,  the  friend  of  Richard 
Hakluyt.  Mr.  Pory  was  a  traveller  and  a  scholar.  He 
received  much  praise  for  his  spirited  translation  of  Leo 
Africanus.  He  was  Member  of  Parliament  for  Bridge- 
water  from  1605  to  1610,  and  in  idigwas  made  Secretary 
to  the  Colony  of  Virginia.  '*  Ever  since  your  departure 
I  have  been  very  unfit  to  learn  any  thing,  because  my 
hearing  (which  Aristotle  calls  Sensus  Eruditianis)  hath, 
by  an  accidental  cold,  been  almost  taken  from  me; 
which  makes  me  very  unsociable,  and  to  keep  within 
doors ;  yet  not  in  such  a  retired  fashion  but  that  I  have 
seen  the  Mask  on  Sunday,  and  the  Barriers  on  Monday 
night.  The  bridegroom  carried  himself  so  gravely  and 
gracefully  as  if  he  were  of  his  father's  age.*  He  had 
greater  gifts  given  him  than  my  Lord  Montgomery 
had ;  his  plate  being  valued  at  ;f  3,000,  and  his  jewels, 
money,  and  other  gifts  at  ;^i,ooo  more."'  Sir  Philip 
Herbert,  brother  of  William,  Earl  of  Pembroke,  had 
married  Lady  Susan  de  Vere  in  1604.  The  entry  in  the 
*'01d  Cheque-book"  runs  as  follows:  "Sir  Philipp 
Harbert,  Knight,  was  maryed  to  Susanna  Vere,  daugh- 
ter of  the  Earle  of  Oxford,  in  the  Chappell  at  White- 
haule,  1604,  wher  was  payd  for  fees  to  Mr.  Deane  of  the 
Chappell  X  li.  and  to  the  gentlemen  of  the  sayd  Chap- 
pell V  li.,  December  the  27th  in  the  second  yere  of  the 
reigne  of  oure  Sovereigne  Lord  Kinge  James."*  Sir 
Philip  Herbert  was  created  Baron  Herbert  of  Shurland 

^  The  Old  Cheque-Book  .  .  .  of  the  Chapel  JRoyal,  ed.  E.  F.  Rimbault, 
1872  (Camden  Society),  p.  i6i. 

'  The  second  Earl  of  Essex,  born  loth  November,  1566,  executed 
a5th  February,  1601,  would  have  been  in  his  fortieth  year  had  he  lived  to 
see  his  son's  marriage. 

'  Text  in  Nichols,  Progresses  of  James  L ,  ii.  33. 

^  Rimbault,  op,  city  p.  i6a 


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398    PRODUCTION   OF   ''THE  TEMPEST" 

and  Earl  of  Montgomery  on  the  4th  of  May,  1605,  and 
succeeded  his  brother,  William  Herbert,  in  the  Earldom 
of  Pembroke  in  1630.  Mr.  Pory  next  proceeds  to 
describe  the  ''Masque  of  Hymen,"  presented  on  the 
evening  of  the  wedding,  but  we  postpone  that  part 
of  his  letter  till  we  come  to  Ben  Jonson's  own  stage- 
directions. 

Another  notice  of  the  marriage  is  found  in  the  title 
of  the  Masque  of  Hymettj  as  published  by  Ben  Jonson 
in  its  first  edition :  "  Hymenaei,  or  the  Solemnities  of 
Masque  and  Barriers,  Magnificently  performed  on  the 
Eleventh  and  Twelfth  Nights  from  Christmas,  at 
Court :  to  the  auspicious  celebrating  of  the  Marriage- 
union  betweene  Robert  Earle  of  Essex  and  the  Lady 
Frances,  second  daughter  of  the  most  noble  Earle  of 
Suflfolke,  1605-6.  The  Author,  B.  J."  After  the  con- 
viction of  the  Earl  and  Countess  of  Somerset  for  the 
murder  of  Sir  Thomas  Overbury  in  161 3,  the  title  was 
changed,  and  the  piece  appears  in  Jonson's  collected 
works  as  Hymenaei,  or  the  Solemnities  of  Masque  and 
Barriers  at  a  Marriage. 

It  has  been  supposed  that  TTie  Tempest  w^sconTitcteA 
in  some  way  with  this  marriage,  ever  since  Holt  pub- 
lished his  essay  on  the  play  in  1749.^  Its  miniature 
masque  was  obviously  written  in  honour  of  some  noble 
alliance ;  that  appears  from  the  love-scene  in  the  wood- 
yard,  the  promise  of  a  royal  wedding  at  Naples,  the 
chanted  blessings  of  the  great  goddesses,  united,  as  we 
are  twice  told,  "a  contract  of  true  love  to  celebrate."* 
The  Masque,  said  Holt,  was  "a  compliment  intended 
by  the  poet,  on  some  particular  solemnity  of  that  kind  ; 
and  if  so,  none  more  likely,  than  the  contracting  the 


^  An  Attempte  to  rescue  that  aunciente,  Engiish  poet^  and  fiay-'atrighie^ 
Maister  Williaume  Shakespere  ;  from  the  maney  errours^  fatUsely  charged 
on  him,  by  certaine  new-fangled  wittes  ,  ,  ,  by  a  Gentleman  formerly  of 
Greys-Inn,  1749. 

'  Tempest,  Hi.  i  ;  v.  i,  306-9 ;  iv.  i,  84  and  132-3. 


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HOLT'S  ESSAY  ON   THE   PLAY         399 

young  Earl  of  Essex,  in  1606,  with  the  Lady  Frances 
Howard."  Holt  was  of  opinion  that  the  play  was  a 
testimony  of  Shakespeare's  gratitude  to  Lord  South- 
ampton, ''a  warm  patron  of  the  Author's,  and  as 
zealous  a  friend  to  the  Essex  family."  It  is  true  that 
Holt  continually  wavered  between  the  ideas  of  a  be- 
trothal and  an  actual  marriage.  He  selected  the  year 
1610  as  the  time  when  the  union  was  complete.  Then 
he  gave  his  readers  leave  to  accept  the  theory  that  The 
Tempest  was  written  for  the  wedding  of  the  Princess 
Elizabeth  to  the  Prince  Palatine  on  Valentine's  Day, 
1613.  Next  he  seems  to  have  forgotten  all  about  'Uhe 
Palsgrave  and  our  Lady  Bess " ;  for  he  ascribes  the 
play  to  some  time  in  the  year  1614,  before  the  produc- 
tion of  Jonson's  Bartholomew  Fair^  though  the  play 
was  known,  at  any  rate,  to  have  been  acted  before 
the  Princess  in  the  previous  year.^ 

Malone  followed  Holt  in  his  mistake  about  betrothal 
and  marriage.  The  bride  and  bridegroom  were  of 
lawful  age  and  their  matrimony  was  duly  solemnised.^ 
Lord  Essex  and  his  child-wife  were  too  young  to  set  up 
a  home,  and  it  was  arranged  that  she  should  live  with 
her  mother,  while  he  travelled  with  '*a  guide  or  tutor" 
through  France  and  Germany.  He  stayed  abroad  for 
about  four  years.  Malone  believed  that  he  came  home 
in  1609,  on  the  authority  of  some  of  the  depositions  in 
the  divorce  proceedings ; '  but  most  of  the  biographers 
agreed  with  Holt  in  thinking  that  he  returned  in  the 
following  year.  In  writing  on  the  chronological  order 
of  the  plays,  Malone  explained  his  views  as  follows : 

^  Holt,  op.  cit.^  pp.  17,  62,  67. 

'  In  a  pamphlet  containing  the  divorce  proceedings,  published  by 
Curll  in  171 1,  the  first  declaration  of  the  Lady  Frances  Howard  is  '*  that 
she  and  Robert  Earle  of  Essex  were  Maried  by  Publicke  Rites  and 
Ceremonies  in  January  1606"  (p*  i)-  To  this  the  Earl  of  Essex  an- 
swered in  the  affirmative  (p.  5).  Arthur  Wilson,  «.«.,  amply  bears  out 
the  fact  of  marriage  as  opposed  to  betrothal. 

^  Malone's  Shakespeare^  ed.  Boswell,  1821,  xv.  418. 


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400    PRODUCTION   OF   ''THE  TEMPEST" 

*'Mr.  Holt  conjecturedi  that  the  masque  in  the  fifth 
(sic)  Act  of  this  comedy  was  intended  by  the  poet  as 
a  compliment  to  the  Earl  of  Essex,  on  his  being  united 
in  wedlock,  in  1611,  to  Lady  Frances  Howard,  to 
whom  he  had  been  contracted  some  years  before.  Even 
if  this  had  been  the  case,  the  date  which  that  commen- 
tator has  assigned  to  this  play  (1614,)  is  certainly  too 
late :  for  it  appears  from  the  MSS.  of  Mr.  Vertue  that 
the  Tempest  was  acted  by  John  Heminge  and  the  rest 
of  the  King's  Company,  before  prince  Charles,  the 
lady  Elizabeth,  and  the  prince  Palatine  elector,  in  the 
beginning  of  the  year  1613."  Mr.  Boswejl,  in  his 
notes  to  the  Variorum  edition,  added  for  himself: 
"  Mr.  Holt  {Observations  on  *  77ie  Tempest^'  p.  67)  im- 
agined that  Lord  Essex  was  united  to  Lady  Frances 
Howard  in  1610 ;  but  he  was  mistaken  :  for  their  union 
did  not  take  place  till  the  next  year."  In  his  next  note 
he  refers  again  to  the  words  "contracted  some  years 
before."  He  gives  the  date  as  ''January  the  5th, 
1606-7,"  which  must  be  wrong,  whatever  style  of 
reckoning  be  adopted;  and  proceeds  to  say,  ''The 
Earl  continued  abroad  four  years  from  that  time;  so 
that  he  did  not  cohabit  with  his  wife  till  161 1."  ^  In  his 
Essay  on  the  origin  and  date  of  The  Tempest^  printed 
in  1808,  and  appended  to  the  play  in  the  Variorum 
edition,  Malone  once  more  spoke  of  the  marriage  of 
the  Earl  and  Lady  Frances,  "to  whom  he  had  been 
betrothed  in  1606."* 

The  marriage,  as  we  have  seen,  was  solemnised  in 
1606.  It  was  annulled  on  the  25th  of  September,  161 3, 
by  a  Commission  of  Delegates,  after  various  scandalous 
and  collusive  proceedings.  When  Essex  returned  from 
the  Continent,  he  found  his  wife  entangled  in  an  in- 
trigue with  Robert  Carr,  Viscount  Rochester,  the  all- 
powerful  favourite.  On  the  4th  of  November,  Carr  was 
created  Earl  of  Somerset,  and  was  married  to  Lady 

^  IcLy  ii.  466  and  note,  *  IeL,aa  note 


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REMARRIAGE  OF  LADY  ESSEX       401 

Frances  on  December  26th.    The  *'01d  Cheque-book" 
contains  the  form  of  the  banns  published  on  the  19th 
of  December,  the  21st  of  December,  and  Christmas 
Day:  "I  aske  the  banes  of  matrimony  betweene  the 
Right  Honorable  personages,  Roberte  Earle  of  Somer- 
sett,  of  the  on[e]  partie,  and  the  Ladie  Francis  Howard, 
of  the  other  part :  if  any  man  can  shewe  any  just  cause 
why  these  may  not  lawfully  be  joyned  together,  lett 
him  speake."    Among  the  entries  of  royal  and  noble 
marriages  we  find  the  following  note :  ''After  that  the 
Earle  of   Essex  and  his  Wiffe,   the  Ladie  Frauncis 
Howard  had  byn  maryed  eight  yeares,  ther  was  by  a 
Commission  of  Delegates  an  anullity  found  to  be  in 
that  maryage  .  .  .  wheruppon  they  beinge  sundered, 
ther  was  a  maryage  solemnized  betweene  the  Earle  of 
Somersett  and  her  upon  the  26th  of  December,  1613, 
at  Whithall,  in    the    Chappell,    being    St.   Steeven's 
dale,    at    which    maryage    was    present   the    Kinges 
Majestie  and  the  Queene,  with  the  Prince  and  all  the 
Lordes  and  Ladies  of  the  Court  and  about  London. 
The  Bride  was  given  by  the  Earle  of  SufFolke,   Lord 
Chamberlaine,  her  Father.     And  the  gentlemen  of  the 
Chappell  had  for  their  fee  as  before  had  been  used,  the 
somme  of  five  poundes."^   John  Chamberlain  described 
the  scene  in  a  letter  to  Miss  Carleton.    ''  The  Marriage 
was   on   Sunday,   without  any  such   bravery  as  was 
looked  for.    Only  some  of  the  Earl's  followers  bestowed 
cost  upon  themselves ;  the  rest  exceeded  not  either  in 
number  or  expence.     The  Bride  was  married  in  her 
hair"  (that  is,   Mr.    Nichols  explains,   with  her  hair 
hanging  loosely  down,  as  the  Princess  Elizabeth  had 
worn  it  at  her  wedding)  '*.  .  .  The  Dean  of  the  Chapel 
coupled  them  ;  which  fell  out  strangely  that  the  same 
man  should  marry  the  same  person  in  the  same  place, 
upon  the  self-same  day  (after  eight  years),  the  former 
party  yet  living.     All  the  difference  was,  the  King 

^  Rimbault,  op,  city  pp.  162,  166. 
2  D 


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402    PRODUCTION  OF   "THE  TEMPEST" 

gave  her  the  last  time,  and  now  her  father.  The  King 
and  Queen  were  both  present,  and  tasted  wafers  and 
ypocrass,  as  at  ordinary  weddings."^  On  the  same 
evening  a  Masque  by  Thomas  Campion  was  presented 
in  the  Banqueting-House  at  Whitehall ;  it  was  pub- 
lished in  1614,  and  is  reprinted  by  Mr.  Nichols  in 
his  Progresses  of  King  James  I.  The  author  gave  an 
interesting  account  of  the  way  in  which  his  stage  was 
prepared.  The  upper  part,  or  "dais,"  of  the  great 
hall  "was  theatred  with  pillars,  scaffolds,"  etc.;  "at 
the  lower  end  of  the  Hall,  before  the  sceane,  was  made 
an  arch  tryumphall,  passing  beautifuU,  which  enclosed 
the  whole  workes."  The  scene  itself  was  in  several 
compartments,  the  upper  part  showing  a  sky  cut  oflf 
by  clouds,  and  the  lower  part  a  garden  ;  there  were 
side-pieces  showing  two  promontories,  one  running 
in  rocks  into  the  sea  and  the  other  covered  with  wood ; 
"  in  the  midst  betweene  them  appeared  a  sea  in  per- 
spective with  ships,  some  cunningly  painted,  some 
arteficially  sayling."  Campion  explained  that  the 
figures  of  mythology  were  out  of  fashion:  "Our 
modern  writers  have  rather  transferd  their  fictions  to 
the  persons  of  Enchaunters  and  Commaunders  of 
Spirits,  as  that  excellent  Poet  Torquato  Tasso  hath 
done,  and  many  others."* 

It  seems  reasonable  to  suppose  that  Shakespeare  was 
intended  to  be  one  of  that  class,  more  especially  as 
Campion  makes  pointed  reference  to  the  dispersal  of 
the  fleet : 

"  A  storm  confused  against  our  tackle  beat, 
Severing  the  ships." 

And  Shakespeare's    master    "capering"    to    see   the 
gallant  vessel  in  safety^  may  have  suggested  Campion's 

^  Chamberlain  to  Mrs.  Alice  Carleton,  30  Dec  1613,  in  Dom.  State 
Paperst  vol.  Ixxv.  no.  53.  Text  in  Nichols,  Progresses  of  James  /., 
iL72S. 

"  Text  in  Nichols,  trf.,  pp.  707-&  •  Tempest,  v.  i,  238. 


I 


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MASQUES  AT  SOMERSET'S   MARRIAGE     403 

skippers  ** shouting  and  tryumphing  after  their  manner." 
**  Twelve  Skippers  in  red  capps,  with  short  cassocks 
and  long  slopps  wide  at  the  knees  of  white  canvass 
striped  with  crimson,  white  gloves  and  pomps,  and 
red  stockings."^ 

On  the  day  after  the  wedding,  Jonson  produced  his 
entertainment,  printed  in  his  collected  Works  as  A 
Challenge  al  Tilt  at  a  Marriage."^  Two  Cupids  came 
in  wrangling :  ''I  serve  the  Man,  and  the  nobler 
creature."  **But  I  the  woman,  and  the  purer;  and 
therefore  the  worthier."  It  is  agreed  that  the  question 
shall  be  fought  out  at  another  time  by  the  ten  knights 
on  each  side  in  the  tiltyard. 

On  Wednesday,  the  29th  of  December,  some  of  the 
King's  servants,  or  gentlemen  about  the  Court,  per- 
formed Jonson's  comical  Irish  Masque.^  **Out  ran  a 
fellow,"  says  Jonson,  **  attired  like  a  citizen,"  and 
after  him  several  Irish  footmen.  There  was  Dennis,  the 
King's  Costermonger's  Boy,  and  Donnell,  Dermock, 
and  Patrick,  and  others,  whose  masters  had  brought 
them  from  Ireland.  There  was  **a  great  news  of  a 
great  bridal,"  and  they  had  come  over  to  see  the 
show.  ''Ty  man,  Robyne,  tey  shay":  ** Marry  ty  man 
Toumaish  hish  daughter,  tey  shay" :  "  Ay,  ty  good  man 
Toumaish  o'  ShufFolke."  Their  masters  had  come  to 
dance  ^^  fading  and  te  fadow,"  country  dances  in  the 
style  of  '*Sir  Roger  de  Coverley";  but  they  had  lost 
their  fine  clothes  in  a  storm,  and  found  no  great  fish 
or  "devoish  vit  a  clowd"  to  help  them.  '*Tey  will 
fight  for  tee,  King  Yamish,  and  for  my  Mistresh  tere  "  : 
**and  my  little  Maishter"  :  "  And  te  vfrow,  ty  Daugh- 
ter, tat  is  in  Tuchland."  The  footman  and  as  many 
boys  danced  "to  the  bagpipe,  and  other  rude  music"  ; 
and  then  the  gentlemen  danced  in  their  great  Irish 

^  See  stage  directions  in  Nichols,  «.j.,  p.  713. 

•  Jonson,  Works f  ed.  Gilford,  1838,  pp.  591-2. 

•  Ai,  pp.  593-4- 


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404    PRODUCTION   OF   ''THE  TEMPEST" 

mantles  ''to  a  solemn  music  of  harps"  ;  and  a  "civil 
gentleman"  of  that  nation  brought  in  a  bard  whose 
singing  of  charms  to  two  harps  reminds  us  of  the 
"harmonious  sphere"  of  the  Masque  of  Hymen  and 
Ferdinand's  "harmonious  charmingly"  in  The  Tem^ 
pest^  Ariel's  business  "in  the  veins  o'  the  earth, 
when  it  is  baked  with  frost,  "^  may  have  influenced 
the  form  of  the  bard's  last  song,  when  he  sang  of 
"Earth's  ragged  chains,  wherein  rude  winter  bound 
her  veins." 

A  letter,  before  quoted,  from  Chamberlain  to  Mrs. 
Alice  Carleton  contains  an  account  of  the  enter- 
tainment :  "Yesterday  there  was  a  medley  Masque  of 
five  English  and  five  Scots,  which  are  called  the  high 
Dancers,  among  whom  Sergeant  Boyd,  one  Aber- 
crombie,  and  Auchmouty,  that  was  at  Padua  and 
Venice,  are  esteemed  the  most  principal  and  lofty."* 
Mr.  Nichols  identified  the  first  of  these  high-steppers 
with  "  Sergeant  Bowy,"  a  clerk  in  the  Royal  cellars, 
who  appears  in  the  roll  of  New  Year's  gifts  for  1605-6 
as  giving  his  Majesty  "a  botle  of  ypocras."*  Mr. 
Patrick  Abercrombie  appears  in  the  lists  of  persons 
to  whom  the  King  gave  orders  on  the  Exchequer. 
Mr.  John  Auchmuty  was  one  of  the  Grooms  of  the 
King's  Bedchamber,  who  obtained  in  1607-8  a  grant 
of  ;f 2,000  at  once,  out  of  "Recusants'"  lands  and 
goods.* 

Chamberlain  writes  again  on  the  5th  of  January, 
this  time  to  Sir  Dudley  Carleton,  and  has  more  to  say 

*  Tempest^  iv.  i,  119,  For  the  *' harmonious  sphere  of  love,**  vide 
in/rat  p.  417.  *  Tempest^  L  2,  255-6. 

'   Vide  sup,  ^  p.  402,  note  i.  "•  Nichols,  «.j,,  i.  598. 

•  /<f.,  i.  599,  note.  Taylor,  in  his  Pennyles  Pilgrimage  (1618),  tells  us 
how,  on  his  way  back  to  London,  he  was  entertained  by  Master  John 
"  Acmootye,"  one  of  the  grooms  of  His  Majesty's  bed-chamber,  at  his 
house  in  East  Lothian.  John  Auchmuty  went  with  Taylor  to  Dunbar, 
"where  ten  Scottish  pints  of  wine  were  consumed,"  and  James  Auchmuty, 
a  brother,  and  a  groom  of  the  privy  chamber,  accompanied  him  on  his 
road  as  far  as  TopcliiFe  in  Yorkshire,  where  they  parted  ways. 


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SOMERSETS  MARRIAGE  405 

about  the  medley :  **The  lofty  Maskers  were  so  well 
liked  at  Court  the  last  week,  that  they  are  appointed 
to  perform  it  again  on  Monday ;  yet  this  Device, 
which  was  a  mimical  imitation  of  the  Irish,  was  not 
so  pleasing  to  many,  which  think  it  no  time,  as  the 
case  stands,  to  exasperate  that  nation  by  making  it 
ridiculous."^ 

We  now  return  to  the  Cupids  and  their  challenge  at 
tilt.  On  the  New  Year's  day,  at  the  time  fixed  for  trying 
the  match,  twenty  knights  rode  into  the  tilt-yard,  in 
splendid  doublets  and  *'  bases,"  like  petticoats  from  waist 
to  knee.  "  On  the  New  Year's  day,"  said  Chamberlain, 
''was  the  tiltings  of  ten  against  ten.  The  bases,  trap- 
pings, and  all  other  furniture  of  the  one  party  was 
murrey  and  white,  which  were  the  Bride's  colours  ;  the 
other  green  and  yellow  for  the  Bridegroom.  There 
were  two  handsome  chariots  or  pageants  that  brought 
in  two  Cupids,  whose  contention  was,  whether  were  the 
truer,  his  or  hers,  each  maintained  by  their  champions." 
Among  the  bride's  combatants  we  notice  the  names  of 
the  Duke  of  Lennox  and  the  Earls  of  Pembroke  and 
Montgomery ;  the  Bridegroom's  party  was  commanded 
by  the  Earl  of  Rutland,  with  whom  rode  the  bride's 
brother  and  several  others  of  her  family.  The  part  of 
umpire  was  taken  by  "Hymen,"  who  charged  both  sides 
to  lay  down  their  weapons:  "The  contention  is  not,  who 
is  the  true  Love,  but,  being  both  true,  who  loves 
most ;  cleaving  the  bow  between  you,  and  dividing  the 
palm." 

"The  Lord  Mayor,"  continues  Chamberlain,  "was 
sent  to  by  the  King,  to  entertain  this  new-married 
couple.  ...  It  was  resolved  to  do  it  at  the  charge 
of  the  City  in  the  Merchant  Taylors'  Hall  upon  four 
days'  warning,  and  thither  they  went  yesternight  about 
six  o'clock,  in  through  Cheapside,  all  by  torch-light, 

'  In  Dom,  State  Papers,  vol.  Ixxvi.  no.  2.     Text  in  Nichols,  u,s./\\. 
732-3- 


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4o6    PRODUCTION  OF   ''THE  TEMPEST" 

accompanied  by  the  Father  and  Mother  of  the  Bride, 
and  all  the  Lords  and  ladies  about  the  Court.  The  Men 
were  all  mounted  and  richly  arrayed,  making  a  goodly 
shew ;  the  women  all  in  coaches.  ...  I  understand  that 
after  supper  they  had  a  Play  and  a  Masque,  and  after 
that  a  Banquet.  •  .  .  Mr.  Attorney's  Masque  is  for 
tomorrow,  and  for  a  conclusion  of  Christmas  and  their 
shews  together,  for  the  King  says  he  will  be  gone 
towards  Royston  upon  Friday."^  The  full  title  of 
Bacon's  Masque  was  as  follows:  ''The  Maske  of 
Flowers,  by  the  Gentlemen  of  Graie's  Inn,  at  the  Court 
of  Whitehall,  in  the  Banquetting  House,  upon  Twelfe 
Night,  1613-14.  Being  the  last  of  the  solemnities  and 
magnificences  which  were  performed  at  the  marriage  of 
the  Right  Honourable  the  Earle  of  Somerset  and  the 
Lady  Frances,  daughter  of  the  Earle  of  Su£folke,  Lord 
Chamberlaine."^ 

In  a  letter  written  a  few  days  before,  Chamberlain 
mentions  the  same  entertainment :  "  Sir  Francis  Bacon 
prepares  a  Maske  which  will  stand  him  in  above  ;^2,ooo, 
and  though  he  has  been  ofiPered  some  help  •  .  .  yet 
he  would  not  accept  it,  but  o£fers  them  the  whole  charge 
with  the  honour."* 

The  idea,  or  "device,"  was  this.  The  Sun,  wishing 
to  do  honour  to  the  marriage,  orders  the  Winter  and  the 
Spring  to  go  to  Court  and  there  present  sports,  such  as 
are  called  "  Christmasse  sportes,  or  Carnavall  sportes," 
as  Winter's  gift,  and  shows  of  greater  pomp  and  splen- 
dour on  the  part  of  Spring.  Moreover,  the  Winter  was 
to  take  notice  of  a  challenge  between  Silenus,  the 
champion  of  wine,  and  Kawasha,  an  Indian  god,  who 
claimed  the  greater  merit  for  tobacco.  The  contrast 
to  be  settled  by  anti-masques,  or  "  anticke-maskes  "  of 
dance  and  song.     The   Lady   Primavera,  or  Spring, 

1  Nichols,  ibid. 

*  Text  in  Nichols,  *rfL,  p.  735,  etc. 

'  Letter  of  9th  Dec    Text  in  Nichols,  op,  cit, ,  iL  705. 


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BACON'S   MASQUE  407 

was  to  inquire  as  to  certain  youths,  such  as  Adonis 
and  Narcissus,  who  had  been  transformed  into  flowers, 
and  were  now  to  return  to  human  life.  The  "fabric" 
showed  a  garden  on  a  slope,  with  an  arbour  arched  on 
pillars  at  the  top ;  at  the  lower  end  of  the  Hall  was 
a  "travers,"  or  screen,  painted  in  perspective,  and 
showing  a  city  wall,  a  gate,  temples,  and  the  roofs  of 
houses.  Out  of  the  great  gate  entered  Winter  "in  a 
short  gowne  of  silke  shagge,  like  withered  grasse,  all 
frosted  and  snowed  over,  and  his  cap,  gown,  gamashes  " 
(or  spatterdashes),  "and  mittens,  furred  crimson." 
Primavera  enters,  and  claps  the  old  man  on  the 
shoulder.  "See  where  she  comes,  apparell'd  like  the 
spring."^  Imagine  a  wood-nymph,  her  neck  swathed 
in  pearls;  her  bodice  of  embroidered  satin,  a  short 
kirtle  of  cloth  of  gold,  worked  with  branches  and 
leaves;  she  wore  a  mantle  of  green  and  silver,  and 
white  buskins  tied  with  green  ribbons  and  adorned 
with  flowers. 

Now  enters  Chanticleer  (Gallus),  a  smart  postman, 
with  a  message  from  the  Sun,  and  almost  immediately 
follows  the  "  Anticke-Maske  of  the  Song."  Silenus 
wears  a  crimson  satin  doublet,  "without  wings, .collar, 
or  skirts,"  with  "sleeves  of  cloth  of  golde,  bases  and 
gamashaes  of  the  same  "  ;  his  Sergeant  bears  a  copper 
mace;  his  singers  were  a  miller,  a  cooper,  a  brewer, 
and  a  vintner's  boy;  and  their  music  the  tabor  and 
pipe,  a  sackbut,  viols  treble  and  bass,  and  a  little 
mandara  lute.  Kawasha,  in  snufi'-colour,  is  carried 
on  a  pole  by  two  Floridans;  his  Sergeant  holds  a 
tobacco-pipe  "as  big  as  a  caliver  " ;  his  shabby  band 
is  headed  by  a  blind  harper  and  his  boy.  Kawasha  is 
nicknamed  "  Potan,"  after  Powhatan,  Emperor  of 
Virginia  and  father  of  the  Princess  Pocohontas.  Mr. 
Strachey  may  have  been  the  authority  for  the  name; 
for  in  his  Travatle  into  Virginia  he  confessed  himself 

^  PericUstU  i,  ii. 


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4o8    PRODUCTION  OF   ^'THE  TEMPEST" 

bound  to  Lord  Bacon  ''by  being  one  of  the  Graies  Inne 
Societe."^  The  Singers  of  Silenus  began  their  catch 
with  this  allusion : 

"  Ahay  for  and  a  hoe, 
Let's  make  this  great  Potan 
Drinke  off  Silenus*  kan  ; 
And  when  that  he  well  drunke  is, 
Returne  him  to  his  munkies 
From  whence  he  came." 

The  songs  are  followed  by  an  "  Anticke-masque  of 
the  Dance."  Sixteen  favourite  characters  linked  hands 
and  leaped  in  a  madcap  round.  We  can  distinguish 
Smug  the  Smith,  two  Switzers,  a  Roaring  Boy,  Maid 
Marian  with  her  Sweep,  and  a  Jewess  of  Portugal. 
Loud  music  sounded  and  the  screens  were  withdrawn, 
and  Prima  vera  appeared  in  a  garden  "of  a  glorious 
and  strange  beauty."  The  Flowers  were  transformed 
into  Masquers,  magnificent  in  white  satin,  with  carna- 
tion and  silver  embroidery,  and  with  egret-plumes 
in  their  caps,  who  performed  their  set  figures  and  sang 
their  Flower-song. 

They  selected  their  partners  and  trod  a  measure  or  so 
even  before  the  masque  was  over;  and  when  their 
vizards  were  off,  they  danced  in  the  regular  Suite^  the 
grave  Pavane,  or  a  Saraband,  and  then  the  vigorous 
Galliards  and  Courantes,  and  at  the  end  something  gay 
and  brisk  like  a  Morris,  when  the  dancer  shook  his 
bells,  ** capering  upright  like  a  wild  Morisco."  "They 
took  their  ladies,"  according  to  the  composer's  note, 
"with  whom  they  danced  Measures,  corantoes,  duret- 
toes,  morascoes,  galliards  " ;  and  we  find  a  similar  phrase 
in  Beaumont's  masque,  when  the  knights  take  out  their 
ladies  "to  dance  with  them  galliards,  durets,  corantoes, 
&c."  The  nature  of  the  Duret,  or  Duretto,  is  unknown. 
The  Galliard,  or  Cinquepace,  was  a  swift  and  wandering 

'  W.  Strachey,  HistorU  of  TravaiU  into  Virginia  Britannia^  etc. ,  cd. 
R.  H.  Major,  i84q,  Dedication  to  Bacon. 


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DANCES  AT  SOMERSET'S  MARRIAGE    409 

dance,  according  to  Sir  John  Da  vies,  whose  Orchestra 
was  printed  in  1596. 

**  Five  was  the  number  of  the  Music's  feet ; 
Which  still  the  Dance  did  with  five  paces  meet."  ^ 

''What  is  thy  excellence  in  a  galliard,  knight?" 
asked  Sir  Toby  in  Tmelfth  Night: 

''  Faith,  I  can  cut  a  caper  :  .  .  .  I  think  I  have  the  back- 
trick  simply  as  strong  as  any  man  in  Illyria."^ 

We  find  an  allusion  to  the  Galliard  in  the  Boatswain's 
speech  at  the  end  of  The  Tempest: 

"  Where  we,  in  all  her  trim,  freshly  beheld 
Our  royal,  good  and  gallant  ship,  our  master 
Capering  to  eye  her."* 

There  is  another  allusion  to  the  dance  in  Howell's 
letter  to  Lady  Sunderland  on  the  murder  of  Bucking- 
ham :  ''The  Duke  did  rise  up  in  a  well-dispos'd  humour 
out  of  his  bed,  and  cut  a  Caper  or  two."* 

The  Courante^  or  Coranto,  was  a  kind  of  devious 
glissade.  The  dancer,  said  Da  vies,  must  range,  "and 
turn,  and  wind,  with  unexpected  change  "  : 

"  What  shall  I  name  those  current  tra vases. 
That  on  a  triple  Dactyl  foot,  do  run 
Close  by  the  ground,  with  sliding  passages  ; 
Wherein  that  dancer  greatest  praise  hath  won. 
Which  with  best  order  can  all  orders  shun  ?  "  ^ 

Amid  all  these  marriage  festivities  there  was  an 
uneasy  suspicion  of  crime.  Sir  Thomas  Overbury  had 
been  sent  to  the  Tower  early  in  the  year,  and  had  died 
there  on  the  15th  of  September,  before  the  marriage. 
It  was  known  that  Overbury's  real  ofifence  was  his 
attempt  to  thwart  the  divorce  proceedings.  His  death 
was  ascribed  to  natural  causes,  but  it  was  thought  that 
Mrs.  Turner  was  concerned   in   the  case;  and  Mrs. 

'  Davies,  Orchestra,  sL  67.  ^  Twelfth  Night,  i.  3,  127-32. 

»  Tempest,  v.  i,  236-8. 

*  Epp  Ho-El,  ed.  Jacobs,  1892,  p.  253  (i.  §  5,  let.  7  :  Stamford,  5  Aug, 
1628).  »  Orchestra,  st.  69. 


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4IO    PRODUCTION  OF   "THE  TEMPEST" 

Turner  not  only  professed  to  be  a  witch,  but  was 
believed  to  be  a  dealer  in  philtres  and  poisons.  It  was 
not  proved  till  October,  1615,  that  Overbury  had  been 
cruelly  murdered.  The  Earl  and  Countess  of  Somerset, 
Mrs.  Turner,  and  several  of  their  aiders  and  abetters, 
were  convicted  of  murder.  Mrs.  Turner  made  a  good 
end  at  the  three-cornered  Tyburn  tree ;  her  good  looks 
and  gold  ringlets  were  accepted  by  the  crowd  as  suffi- 
cient proof  of  her  repentance.  The  Earl  and  Countess 
were  pardoned,  but  dismissed  from  Court.  Somerset 
got  a  new  lease  for  life,  as  James  Howell  wrote  to  his 
father  about  that  time,  and  so  had  the  ''articulate 
Lady,"  as  they  called  the  Countess,  from  her  "Articles  " 
against  Essex.  " She  was  afraid,"  says  Howell,  "that 
Coke  the  Lord  Chief-Justice  .  •  .  would  have  made 
white  Broth  of  them,  but  that  the  Prerogative  kept  them 
from  the  Pot:  yet  the  subservient  Instruments,  the 
lesser  Flies  could  not  break  thorow,  but  lay  entangled 
in  the  Cobweb;  amongst  others  Mistress  Turner^  the 
first  inventress  oiyelUm  Starchy  was  executed  in  a  Cob- 
web Lawn  Ruff  of  that  colour  at  Tyburn,  and  with  her 
I  believe  that^^/2tnv  Starchy  which  so  much  disfigured 
our  Nation,  and  rendered  them  so  ridiculous  and  fan- 
tastic, will  receive  its  Funeral."^ 


II 

SHAKESPEARE'S       ATTITUDE      TOWARDS       MASQUES  —  JONSON's 
**  MASQUE  OF  HYMEN  " — PARALLELS  WTTH  "  THE  TEMPEST  " 

We  return  to  the  wedding  of  1606,  with  the  object  of 
comparing  The  Tempest  with  the  regular  Court-Masques, 
and  more  especially  with  the  ''  Masque  of  Hymen  and 
Festivity  at  Barriers." 

Anne  of  Denmark  was  glad  of  any  excuse  for  a  masque. 

^  Epp,  Ho-ELy  u,s.t  pp.  20,  21  (t.  §  X,  let.  2 :  Broad  Street^  London, 
I  March  16 18). 


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MASQUES  411 

Her  Court,  according  to  Arthur  Wilson's  history,  was 
^^a  continued  MaskaradOy^  where  she  and  her  ladies 
appeared  in  splendid  attire,  ^Mike  so  many  Sea-nymphs 
...  to  the  ravishment  of  the  beholders."^  The 
essence  of  the  masque  was  ''pomp  and  glory":  so 
said  Lord  Bacon,  who  understood  the  business  as  well 
as  the  best  professional :  ''  These  things  are  but  toys 
.  .  .  but  yet,  since  princes  will  have  such  things,  it  is 
better  they  should  be  graced  with  elegancy  than  daubed 
with  cost."^  Mr.  Isaac  D'Israeli  described  some  of  these 
festivities  in  his  Curiosities  of  Literature^  and  praised 
them  for  their  ''fairy-like  magnificence  and  lyrical 
spirit."*  Mr.  Gifibrd,  in  the  Memoirs  of  Jonson,  goes 
deep  into  the  subject.^  The  masque,  he  thought,  was  a 
combination  of  dialogue,  singing,  and  dancing,  har- 
moniously blended  by  the  use  of  some  slight  plot  or 
fable ;  th6  scenery  was  costly  and  splendid ;  "  the  most 
celebrated  Masters  were  employed  on  the  songs  and 
dances  " ;  and  the  dresses,  on  which  the  ultimate  success 
depended,  were  always  new  and  strange,  rich  to  ex- 
travagance, all  gold  and  jewels : 

''  Now  this  mask 

Was  cried  incomparable ;  and  the  ensuing  night 

Made  it  a  fool  and  beggar."^ 

Mr.  D'Israeli  quotes  Warburton's  odd  saying: 
"Shakespeare  was  an  enemy  to  these  fooleries ^  as 
appears  by  his  writing  none."  This  was  a  hit  at 
Jonson,  who  was  thought  to  have  classed  The  Tempest 
among  common  fooleries;  but  the  word  used  by  him 
was  "drolleries,"  a  common  name  for  the  puppet- 
show.*  Malone  was  scornful  at  "the  wretched  taste  of 
such  bungling  performances." 

^  Wilson,  «.;.,  p.  685,  col.  2.  ^  Essays i  xxxvii. 

•  Curiosities  of  Literature,  12th  ed.,  1840,  pp.  375-8. 

•  Preface  to  Works  of  Jonson^  u,s,,  ^  6^ 
"  King  Henry  VIIL,  i.  i,  26-a 

•  Jonson,  Induction  to  Bart  Fair:  "If  there  be  never  a  servant- 
monster  in  the  fair,  who  can  help  it,  he  says  .  .  .  ?  he  is  loth  to  make 


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412    PRODUCTION  OF   **THE  TEMPEST" 

But  Shakespeare  himself  was  not  averse  from  "revels, 
dances,  and  Masques."  There  was  a  masque  at  York 
Place  in  his  Henry  VIII.  ;  in  Titnon  of  Athens^ 
Cupid  enters  "  with  a  mask  of  Ladies  as  Amazons,  with 
lutes  in  their  hands,  dancing  and  playing  " ;  and  each 
of  the  Lords  singled  out  an  Amazon,  "and  all  dance, 
men  with  women,  a  lofty  strain  or  two  to  the  haut- 
boys "  ;  and  in  Love's  Labour^ s  Lost,  when  the  trumpet 
sounds,  the  masquers  enter,  some  as  blackamoors  and 
some  in  Russian  habits,  to  tread  a  measure  with  the 
Ladies  on  the  grass.^  In  TTie  Tempest  we  have  the 
sketch  of  a  Court-masque,  as  well  as  a  little  anti- 
masque,  or  "antic  masque,"  as  some  used  to  call  it. 

Dr.  Hurd  was  a  cautious  critic;  but  he  seems  to 
have  fallen  into  a  mistake  about  this  "masque"  in  The 
Tempest.  He  afiSrmed  that  the  spectacle  of  Iris  and 
the  goddesses  and  the  dancing  nymphs  and  husband- 
men put  to  shame  all  the  masques  of  Jonson,  not  only 
in  construction,  but  in  the  splendour  of  its  show.' 
Gifford  went  to  the  opposite  extreme,  in  saying  that 
the  little  interlude  was  danced  and  sung  in  the  ordinary 
course  "to  a  couple  of  fiddles,  perhaps,  in  the  balcony 
of  the  stage." 

The  costumes  of  Shakespeare's  goddesses  were  prob- 
ably copied  from  Samuel  Daniel's  Royal  masque, 
performed  at  Hampton  Court  in  1604.  The  stage 
directions  for  dresses  and  dances  were  written  by 
Daniel  himself,  and  are  further  explained  by  Mr. 
Ernest  Law  in   his  reprint.     It  appears  that  Queen 


nature  afraid  in  his  plays,  like  those  that  beget  tales,  tempests,  and  such 
like  drolleries." 

^  Henry  VII Ly  i.  4 ;  Timon  0/ Athens,  i.  2  ;  Love's  Labours  Lost,  v.  2. 

^  Hurd,  Dissertation  iv.,  On  the  Marks  of  Imitation,  in  Collected 
Works,  181 1,  vol.  ii.  p.  251.  His  actual  words  are  :  *'  The  knowledge  of 
antiquity  requisite  to  succeed  in  them  was,  I  imagine,  the  reason  that 
Shakespeare  was  not  over  fond  to  try  his  hand  at  these  elaborate  trifles. 
Once,  indeed,  he  did,  and  with  such  success  as  to  disgrace  the  very  best 
things  of  this  kind  we  find  in  Jonson." 


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SHAKESPEARE'S  DEBT  TO  MASQUES    413 

Anne  supplied  herself  out  of  Queen  Elizabeth's  ward- 
robe;  and  at  the  Tower  "there  were  found  no  less 
than  500  robes,  all  of  the  greatest  magnificence."^ 
Some  of  them,  as  altered  for  the  masque,  were  minutely 
described  by  the  composer.  Venus  appeared  in  a 
dove-coloured  and  silver  mantle,  embroidered  with 
doves;  Ceres  in  straw-colour  and  silver  embroidery, 
with  ears  of  corn  in  her  hair ;  Tethys  in  a  sea-green 
mantle,  "with  a  silver  embroidery  of  waves,  and  a 
dressing  of  reeds"  (for  her  hair).^  Lord  Bacon,  we 
may  observe,  preferred  spangles:  "Oes  or  spangs, 
as  they  are  of  no  great  cost,  so  they  are  of  most  glory  : 
as  for  rich  Embroidery,  it  is  lost  and  not  discerned."* 
Juno  took  the  chief  place  in  the  masque.  Daniel  de- 
scribed her  as  wearing  a  gold  crown  and  a  sky-coloured 
mantle,  embroidered  with  gold,  and  figured  with  pea- 
cocks' feathers : 

''  First  here  Imperiall /t^n^?  in  her  Chayre, 

With  Scepter  of  command  for  Kingdomes  large : 
Descends,  all  clad  in  colours  of  the  Ayre, 
Crown'd  with  bright  Starres,  to  signifie  her  charge."  * 

Jonson  brought  out  his  Masque  of  Hymen  on  the 
wedding-day,  January  5th,  1606,  with  the  help  of 
Inigo  Jones,  as  contriver  of  the  machines.  We  con- 
tinue our  extracts  from  Pory's  letter  to  Cotton.*  "  But 
to  return  to  the  Mask ;  both  Inigo,  Ben,  and  the  Actors, 
men  and  women,  did  their  parts  with  great  commenda- 
tion. The  concert  or  soul  of  the  Mask  was  Hymen 
bringing  in  a  bride,  and  Juno  Pronuba's  priest,  a 
bridegroom,  proclaiming  that  these  two  should  be 
sacrificed  to  Nuptial  Union.  And  here  the  Poet  made 
apostrophe  to  the  Union  of  the  Kingdoms.  But  before 
the  sacrifice  could  be  performed,  Ben  Jonson  turned 
the  globe  of  the  earth,  standing  behind  the  altar,  and 

^  Law,  Introd  to  TThe  Visum  of  the  Twelve  Goddesses^  1880,  p.  13. 

•  Id,y  59-61.  •  Essays t  xxxvii.,  u.s. 

^  Vision  of  the  Twelve  Goddesses^  p.  68.       '  See  sup.,  p.  397,  note  3. 


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414    PRODUCTION  OF   ''THE  TEMPEST" 

within  the  concave  sat  the  eight  men-Maskers  repre- 
senting the  four  Humours  and  the  four  Affections,  who 
leapt  forth  to  disturb  the  sacrifice  to  Union.  But, 
amidst  their  fury,  Reason,  that  sat  above  all,  crowned 
with  burning  tapers,  came  down  and  silenced  them. 
These  Eight,  together  with  Reason  their  moderatress, 
mounted  above  their  heads,  sat  somewhat  like  the 
Ladies  in  the  scallop-shell  the  last  year."  This  was  a 
reminiscence  of  Jonson's  Masque  of  Blackness^  per- 
formed on  Twelfth-night,  1605,  ^^  which  the  Queen, 
Lady  Suffolk,  and  ten  other  ladies,  appeared  as  blacka- 
moors, daughters  of  Niger.  ^  The  masquers  were 
placed  in  a  shell  of  mother-o'-pearl,  curiously  made  to 
move  "and  rise  with  the  billow."  The  machine  was 
described,  in  a  letter,  by  Sir  Dudley  Carleton:^  ''There 
was  a  great  engine  at  the  lower  end  of  the  room,  which 
had  motion,  and  in  it  were  the  images  of  sea-horses, 
with  other  terrible  fishes,  which  were  ridden  by  the 
Moors  ;  the  indecorum  was  that  there  was  all  fish,  and 
no  water.  At  the  further  end  was  a  great  shell  in  form 
of  a  skallop,  wherein  were  four  seats."  Earlier  in  the 
letter  he  describes  the  wedding  of  Sir  Philip  Herbert, 
afterwards  Earl  of  Montgomery,  and  Lady  Susan  Vere, 
"performed  at  Whitehall,  with  all  the  honour  could 
be  done  a  great  favourite."  •  The  phrase  serves  to 
illustrate  Prosperous  complaint  of  the  plot  to  confer 
fair  Milan  on  his  brother,  "  with  all  the  honours."^ 

Mr  Pory  continues  as  follows :  "  About  the  Globe  of 
Earth  hovered  a  middle  region  of  clouds,  in  the  centre 
whereof  stood  a  grand  concert  of  musicians,  and  upon 
the  cantons  or  horns  sat  the  Ladies,  four  at  one  corner 
and  four  at  another,  who  descended  upon  the  stage, 
not  after  the  stale,  downright  perpendicular  fashion, 

*  Jonson,  Works,  u,s.,  pp.  544-7. 

"  To  Sir  Ralph  Winwood,  Jaa,  1605.     Text  in  Winwood,  Memorials, 
etc.,  1725,  ii.  43-5;  Nichols,  u.5,,  ii.  470-6. 
»  Vide  sup,,  1^1^.  397-«. 

*  Tempest,  i.  2,  itS-'j. 


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PORY'S  LETTER  TO  COTTON  415 

like  a  bucket  into  a  well,  but  came  gently  sloping 
down."*  These  eight  represented  the  nuptial  powers  of 
Juno,  such  as  ^^/ifgw,"  '*who  made  one,  of  twain,"  and 
"  C«m,"  whose  office  was  to  deck  the  *'fair  tresses" 
of  the  bride.  *'The  men  were  clad  in  crimson,  and 
the  women  in  white."  Mr.  Pory  is  only  describing  the 
general  efifect.  **  They  had  every  one  a  white  plume  of 
the  richest  hern's  feathers,  and  were  so  rich  in  jewels 
upon  their  heads  as  was  most  glorious.  I  think  they 
hired  and  borrowed  all  the  principal  jewels  and  ropes  of 
pearl  both  in  Court  and  City.  The  Spanish  Ambassador 
seemed  but  poor  to  the  meanest  of  them.  They  danced 
all  the  variety  of  dances  both  severally  and  promtscue; 
and  then  the  women  and  men,  as  namely,  the  Prince, 
who  danced  with  as  great  perfection  and  as  settled  a 
majesty  as  could  be  devised,  the  Spanish  Ambassador 
.  .  .  &c.  And  the  men  gleaned  out  of  the  Queen,  the 
bride,  and  the  greatest  of  the  Ladies." 

The  dancers  performed  several  intricate  figures, 
ending  with  a  Ladies'  Chain,  when  all  took  other 
partners  to  dance  Measures,  Galliards,  and  Corantoes. 
The  whole  ** scene"  being  drawn  again,  and  covered 
with  clouds,  they  left  off  these  ''intermixed  dances," 
and  danced  in  figures  again,  ending  up  with  a  circle  or 
inner  ring  round  the  altar  of  sacrifice. 

'*  Up,  youths !  hold  up  your  lights  in  air, 
And  shake  abroad  their  flaming  hair. 
Now  move  united,  and  in  gait, 
As  you,  in  pairs,  do  front  the  state." 

The  writer  of  the  masque  had  ransacked  antiquity 
for  his  marriage-lore.  He  was  familiar  with  every  detail 
of  the  Athenian  and  Roman  weddings ;  and  the  piece 
was  printed  with  an  apparatus  of  notes  from  the  gram- 
marians and  poets.^    It  was  a  nourishing  and  sound 

^  A  canton^  in  heraldry,  is  the  eighth  part  of  the  escutcheon,  cut  off  by 
cross  lines. 
'  In  Jonson's  Warks^  u.s.,  pp.  552-61. 


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4i6    PRODUCTION   OF   ^'THE  TEMPEST" 

meat,  said  Father  Ben,  though  some  were  too  squeamish 
to  enjoy  it ;  let  them  take  on  their  empty  trenchers  *'a 
few  Italian  herbs,  picked  up  and  made  into  a  salad." 
^'  It  is  not  my  fault,  if  I  fill  them  out  nectar,  and  they 
run  to  metheglin."^ 

The  opening  is  full  of  the  ceremonies  described  by 
Varro  and  Festus.  The  scene  or  curtains  being 
**  drawn,"  an  altar  was  discovered,  to  which  advanced 
five  pages  with  waxen  tapers:  *' behind  them,  one 
representing  a  Bridegroom  ;  his  hair  short,  and  bound 
with  party-coloured  ribands  and  gold  twist:  his  gar- 
ments purple  and  white."  On  the  other  side  entered 
Hymen  in  a  saffron-coloured  robe,  '^his  head  crowned 
with  roses  and  marjoram,  in  his  right  hand  a  torch 
of  pine-tree."  After  him  a  youth  in  white,  carrying 
a  torch  of  white-thorn,  and  under  his  arm  ^'a  little 
wicker  flasket,"  and  then  two  men  in  white,  with  distaff 
and  spindle. 

Now  one  enters  personating  the  bride,  her  hair  flow- 
ing and  loose  and  lightly  dusted  with  grey;  "on  her 
head  a  garland  of  roses,  like  a  turret " ;  her  garments 
white ;  on  her  back  a  fleece  hanging  down  ;  **  her  zone, 
or  girdle  about  her  waist  of  white  wool,  fastened  with 
the  Herculean  knot."  Next  marched  the  two  "  hand- 
fasters,"  or  joiners  of  hands,^  and  two  that  sang  and 
carried  the  water  and  fire,  and  the  musicians  crowned 
with  roses.  Near  the  altar  stood  the  globe,  or  micro- 
cosm, called  the  **huge  body"  and  'Mittle  world  of 
man,"  from  which  rushed  out  the  men-masquers  **with 
a  kind  of  contentious  music."  Hymen  is  alarmed  and 
cries  to  his  torch-bearers : 

'*  Save,  save  the  virgins  ;  keep  your  hallow'd  lights 
Untouch 'd  ;  and  with  their  flame  defend  our  rites." 

When  Reason  has  restored  peace,  she  describes  the 

^  Preface  to  Masque. 

"  Called  in  the  text  **  Auspices," 


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JONSON'S  MASQUE  OF  HYMEN        417 

ceremonies,  the  meaning  of  the  flask,  the  distafif  and 
spindle,  and  the  mystical  dress  of  the  bride  ;  her  hair 
shed  with  grey,  the  fleece  and  the  utensils  of  spinning, 
imply  that  she  is  now  a  niatron  : 

'*  The  Zone  of  wool  about  her  waist, 
Which,  in  contrary  circles  cast. 
Doth  meet  in  one  strong  knot,  that  binds. 
Tells  you,  so  should  all  married  minds. 
And  lastly,  these  five  waxen  lights 
Imply  perfection  in  the  rites." 

The  speech  of  Reason  concludes  the  ^^  first  masque  "  ; 
we  are  now  to  see  the  entrance  of  the  ''women-mas- 
quers," and  the  vision  of  Juno,  Queen  of  Heaven,  the 
Dispenser  and  Governor  of  Marriages.  The  upper 
part  of  '*the  scene  "  was  all  of  clouds,  ''made  artifici- 
ally to  swell  and  ride  like  the  rack" ;  "the  air  clearing, 
in  the  top  thereof  was  discovered  Juno,  sitting  in  a  chair, 
supported  by  two  beautiful  peacocks";  she  wore  a  white 
diadem  and  a  veil  tied  with  "several  coloured  silks," 
and  crowned  with  a  garland  of  lilies  and  roses."  At 
her  feet  stood  Iris,  her  messenger,  and  on  either  side 
the  ladies  that  were  to  act  in  "the  second  masque  " : 

"  And  see  where  Juno,  whose  great  name 
Is  Unio,  in  the  anagram, 
Displays  her  glittering  state  and  chair. 
As  she  enlightened  all  the  air ! 
Hark  how  the  charming  tunes  do  beat 
In  sacred  concords  'bout  her  seat ! " 

The  ladies  descend,  in  clouds  that  stoop  gently  down 
to  earth,  and  begin  their  dances  in  circles  round  "the 
harmonious  sphere  of  Love." 

"Such  was  the  exquisite  performance,"  said  Ben 
Jonson;  "...  nor  was  there  wanting  whatsoever 
might  give  to  the  furniture  or  complement ;  either  in 
riches,  or  strangeness  of  the  habits,  delicacy  of  dances, 
magnificence  of  the  scene,  or  divine  rapture  of  music." 
2  B 


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4i8    PRODUCTION  OF  **THE  TEMPEST" 

The  costumes  of  the  eight  lords  were  copied  from 
ancient  statues,  ^^with  some  modern  additions:  which 
made  it  both  graceful  and  strange."  They  wore 
Persian  crowns  and  tight  coats  of  '^carnation  cloth  of 
silver,"  with  streamers,  or  'Mabels,"  of  white  satin, 
sleeves  of  **watchet  cloth  of  silver,"  capes  of  several- 
coloured  silks,  and  silver  greaves.  Jonson  considered 
that  the  ladies'  attire  was  "  full  of  glory  "  ;  "  the  upper 
part  of  white  cloth  of  silver,  wrought  with  Juno's  birds 
and  fruits  " ;  a  loose  garment  of  carnation  and  silver, 
and  a  golden  zone ;  another  flowing  robe  of  watchet 
and  gold ;  all  made  '^  round  and  swelling,"  with  a  look 
of  the  ** farthingale"  fashion;  "their  shoes  were 
azure  and  gold,  set  with  rubies  and  diamonds ;  so  were 
all  their  garments ;  and  every  part  abounding  in  orna- 
ment." 

''No  less  to  be  admired,"  said  Jonson,  was  "the 
whole  machine  of  the  spectacle,"  the  first  part  consist- 
ing of  the  globe,  "filled  with  countries,  and  those 
gilded ;  where  the  sea  was  exprest,  heightened  with 
silver  waves."  The  upper  part  was  crowned  with  a 
statue  of  Jupiter  the  Thunderer,  above  a  sphere  of  fire 
moving  so  swiftly  that  no  eye  could  distinguish  its 
colour.  In  this  high  region,  between  painted  clouds, 
sat  Juno  on  her  golden  throne,  encircled  with  meteors 
and  blazing  stars ;  below  her  a  rainbow  in  which  sat 
musicians  in  costumes  of  varied  colours,  to  represent 
"Airy  Spirits."  1 

In  the  masque  of  The  Fortunate  Isles  and  their  Unian^ 
produced  in  January,  1625-6,*  Jonson  described  the 
proper  dress  of  one  of  these  companions  of  Ariel. 
"His  Majesty  being  set,  enter,  running,  Jophiel,  an 
airy  spirit  .  .  .  attired  in  light  silks  of  several 
colours,  with  wings  of  the  same,  a  bright  yellow  hair, 

^  Jonson's  notes,  at  end  of  Masque. 
^  Jonson's  Works,  u,s,,  pp.  648-52. 


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THE   MASQUE  AND  BARRIERS        419 

a  chaplet  of  flowers,  blue  silk  stockings,  and  pumps, 
and  gloves,  with  a  silver  fan  in  his  hand  "  : 

**  Sir,  my  name  is  Jophiel, 
Intelligence  unto  the  sphere  of  Jupiter, 
An  airy  jocular  Spirit,  employed  to  you 
From  Father  Outis." 

The  sketch  of  an  **Aery  Spirit"  by  Inigo  Jones  is  pre- 
served in  the  Duke  of  Devonshire's  Library.  It  was 
copied  in  facsimile  in  the  volume  upon  Inigo  Jones, 
printed  for  the  Shakespeare  Society ;  ^  but  so  far  as  we 
can  judge,  it  was  intended  neither  for  Ariel  nor  for 
Jophiel.  We  see  no  chaplet  on  the  yellow  curls,  no 
gloves  or  fan,  and  the  silk  stockings  and  dancing- 
pumps  are  replaced  by  buskins  of  an  ancient  fashion. 
There  is  no  reason  for  doubting  the  accuracy  of 
Jonson's  description.  We  suppose  that  he  was  present 
at  the  masque  of  The  Fortunate  Isles;  and  we  have  his 
own  note  on  the  earlier  occasion  that  his  **  airy  Spirits  " 
appeared  'Mn  habits  various,"  and  in  dresses  of 
**  several  colours." 

The  Monday  evening  was  devoted  to  the  sports  of 
the  barriers,  a  kind  of  military  masque  combined  with 
an  assault  of  arms.  A  dispute  about  marriage  was  to 
arise  between  **  Truth,"  in  a  blue  dress  and  a  wreath  of 
palm,  and  her  rival  "  Opinion,"  an  impostor  who  had 
chosen  the  same  costume.  This  dispute  could  only  be 
decided  by  arms  ;  and  two  sets  of  champions  advanced 
with  pikes  and  swords  to  the  bar  set  across  the  hall. 
The  Duke  of  Lennox  commanded  fifteen  ''  Knights  in 
carnation  and  white  "  for  Truth ;  the  Earl  of  Sussex  led 
as  many  in  watchet  and  white  for  her  rival.  They 
were  all  led  to  the  dais  by  the  Earl  of  Nottingham, 
Lord  High  Constable  for  that  night,  supported  by  the 
Earl  of  Worcester  as  Earl-Marshal ;  and  the  champions 
then  fought,  at  first  in  pairs,  and  afterwards  three  to 

^  Edited  by  Peter  Cunningham,  J.  R.  Planch^,  and  J.  P.  Collier,  1848. 

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420    PRODUCTION  OF   ^^THE  TEMPEST" 

three ;  **  and  performed  it  with  that  alacrity  and  vigour, 
as  if  Mars  himself  had  been  to  triumph  before  Venus, 
and  invented  a  new  Masque."^ 

The  military  entertainment  has  little  connection  with 
The  Tempest,  except  as  being  an  appendix  or  **  corol- 
lary" to  the  actual  wedding-masque;  but  there  are 
lines  and  phrases  in  it  which  will  be  found  useful  in 
explaining  certain  difficult  passages  in  the  play.  ''You 
look  wearily,"  says  Miranda  ; 

''  No,  noble  mistress  ;  'tis  fresh  morning  with  me 
When  you  are  by  at  night."* 

This  seems  to  mean  that  Miranda's  eyes  were  the 
heavens  in  which  his  sunlight  dawned.  Calderon  has 
the  same  thought  in  his  play  Bien  vengas,  Maly  where 
the  bright  sun  rises  in  the  lady's  eyes;  ^^ En  tus  ojos, 
Senoruj  madrugdba  el  claro  SoV^ ;  *  and  in  the  speech  of 
Truth  at  the  barriers  we  find  the  couplet : 

*'  Marriage  Love's  object  is  ;  at  whose  bright  eyes 
He  lights  his  torches,  and  calls  them  his  skies." 

The  same  speech  contains  a  reference  to  "mirrors 
decked  with  diamonds."  This  afifords  an  illustration  of 
Prosperous  words:  *'When  I  have  decked  the  sea  with 
drops  full  salt,"  and  Caliban's  talk  of  ''brave  utensils 
for  so  he  calls  them,  which,  when  he  has  a  house,  he'll 
deck  withal."*  In  the  TSm  Gentlemen  of  Verona  the 
lady's  glove  is  called  "  Sweet  ornament  that  decks  a 
thing  divine."^  Shakespeare  may  have  thought  of  the 
be-diamonded  mirror,  or  of  the  sea  as  personified  as 
Tethys.  We  perceive  that  the  word,  as  used  by  him, 
always  implies   the    idea    of   adornment.      We    take 

^  Jonson's  notes  on  the  Masque,  among  the  stage-directions. 

*  Tempest^  iii.  i,  32-4. 

'  Bien  vengas^  Mal^  Jornada  i.  Escena  5,  in  Hartzenbusch's  ed.  of 
Calderon,  vol  iv.  p.  310,  col.  3. 

*  Tempest^  i.  2,  155 ;  iii.  2,  104-5. 

*  Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona^  ii,  i,  4. 


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ILLUSTRATIVE   PASSAGES  421 

another  instance  from  the  first  scene  in  the  Midsummer 
Nighfs  Dream  : 

'•When  Phoebe  doth  behold 
Her  silver  visage  in  the  watery  glass, 
Decking  with  liquid  pearl  the  bladed  grass."  ^ 

Dr.  Johnson  thought  it  absurd  to  suppose  that  the 
sea  could  be  adorned  with  teardrops.  Decking,  he 
thought,  was  **  covering,"  as  a  deck  covers  the  ship. 
"In  some  parts,"  he  added,  "they  yet  say  deck  the 
table.^^  Yet  here  again  we  can  surely  detect  the  idea 
of  display  and  adornment.  Malone  introduced  a  new 
idea,  which  received  a  very  general  approval.  *  *  To  deck^ 
I  am  told,  signifies  in  the  North,  to  sprinkle."^  He 
cited  Mr.  John  Ray's  Collection  of  English  Words y  not 
generally  iised,  first  printed  in  1674,  ^^^  afterwards  in 
1691.  Among  the  north-country  words  we  find  "  deg  " 
and  "leek,"  in  the  sense  of  sprinkling.^  In  many 
glossaries,  "deg"  is  specially  used  for  sprinkling  linen 
before  ironing  in  the  laundry;  and  the  servants  in 
Holderness  are  bidden  to  sprinkle  the  pavement  before 
sweeping  it:  "Dag  causey,  afoor  thoo  sweeps  it." 
Among  Ray's  South  and  East  Country  Words  we  find 
the, following  definition  :  ^^Dag;  Dew  upon  the  Grass. 
Hence  Daggle-tail  is  spoken  of  a  Woman  that  hath 
dabbled  her  Coats  with  Dew,  Wet,  or  Dirt."  It  seems 
almost  certain  that  Shakespeare's  phrase  bore  the  mean- 
ing belonging  to  it  in  literary  English.  There  is  also 
a  difficulty  about  the  drops  being  "full  salt,"  as  salt 
as  the  waves.  Why,  it  may  be  asked,  should  Prospero 
make  a  point  about  salt  tears  and  salt  seas?  There 
is  certainly  an  obscurity  about  the  argument;  but 
perhaps  we  may  take  it  as  an  instance  of  the  "  pathetic 
fallacy  "  by  which  external  nature  is  treated  as  being  in 

*  Midsummer  Nighfs  Dream^  i.  i,  209-11. 

^  Johnson  and  Malone  on  Tempest ^  i.  2,  155,  in  Bosweil's  AfaUme, 

vol.  XV. 

*  p.  4,  **  to  Deg,  V.  Leek  ;  p.  26,  Leek  on,  pour  on  morCi  Liquor,  v.g." 


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422    PRODUCTION  OF   **THE  TEMPEST" 

harmony  with  human  feelings.  Prospero  himself,  a 
few  lines  earlier  in  his  speech,  had  found  mercy  and 
protection  in  the  waves  and  winds : 

"  There  they  hoist  us, 
To  cry  to  the  sea  that  roar'd  to  us,  to  sigh 
To  the  winds  whose  pity,  sighing  back  again, 
Did  us  but  loving  wrong.  "^ 

For  a  modern  example  we  might  take  the  stanza  from 
Lord  Tennyson's  Maud  on  the  wind  in  the  mead  : 

**  From  the  meadow  your  walks  have  left  so  sweet 
That  whenever  a  March-wind  sighs 
He  sets  the  jewel-print  of  your  feet 
In  violets  blue  as  your  eyes."  * 

^  Tempest^  i.  2,  14^51.  *  Tennyson,  Maud^  part  L  xxii. 


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III.     THE    MARRIAGE    OF    THE 
PRINCESS   ELIZABETH,   1613 

I 

ACCOUNT    OF    THE    MARRIAGE    CEREMONIES 

'T^HE  TEMPEST  was  certainly  acted  at  Court 
shortly  before  the  Princess  Elizabeth's  wedding. 
It  may  have  been  on  the  list  of  plays  ordered  for 
performance  during  the  preceding  autumn,  but  its 
production,  in  that  case,  was  considerably  delayed  by 
the  illness  and  death  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  in 
November,  161 2. 

Prince  Frederick,  the  accepted  suitor,  arrived  in 
London  about  the  middle  of  October.  He  was  the 
object  of  great  popular  interest,  the  nation  regarding 
him  as  a  pillar  of  the  Protestant  cause.  He  was  usually 
known  as  the  Palsgrave,  as  being  Count  of  the 
Pfalz,  the  Palatinate  of  the  Rhine.  He  was  also  an 
Elector  of  the  Empire,  and  held  the  nominal  dignity 
of  Arch-server,  or  **  Arch-sewer  of  the  Dishes,"  at  the 
imperial  banquets.  The  '*  Sewer  "  was  an  official  who 
placed  the  dishes  on  the  table,  as  we  learn  from  Over- 
bury's  character  of  **a  Puny  Clerk":  **he  practices  to 
make  the  words  in  his  declaration  spread  as  a  sewer 
doth  the  dishes  of  a  niggard's  table."  ^  His  other 
titles  were  enumerated  by  the  kings-at-arms,  ^'the  high 
and  mighty  Prince  Frederick,  by  the  grace  of  God, 
Count  Palatine  of  the  Rhine,  Arch-sewer  and  Prince 

*  Overbuiy,  Characters^  in  Character  Writings  of  the  Seventeenth 
Century^  ed.  Henry  Morley,  1891,  p.  67. 

423 


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424    PRODUCTION  OF   "THE  TEMPEST" 

Elector  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  Duke  of  Bavaria, 
and  Knight  of  the  most  Noble  Order  of  the  Garter."^ 

Before  his  marriage  he  was  lower  in  rank  than  the 
Lady  Elizabeth,  ''sole  daughter  of  the  Crown  of 
England."  After  the  marriage  she  took  the  place  next 
below  her  husband — a  circumstance  of  great  use  in 
fixing  the  order  in  which  the  plays  were  performed. 
It  was  on  this  point  of  precedence  that  the  Queen 
opposed  the  match,  and  threatened  not  to  go  to  the 
wedding.  James  Howell,  who  knew  the  gossip  of 
Denmark  House,  heard  that  Queen  Anne's  afifection 
for  her  daughter  had  diminished,  ''so  that  she  would 
often  call  her  Goody  Palsgrave J'^'^  He  writes  later  on, 
when  Frederick  had  lost  his  crown  at  the  battle  of 
Prague,  that  the  Duke  of  Brunswick  was  going  to 
help  the  Lady  Elizabeth,  "who,  in  the  Lomo  Countries 
and  some  parts  of  Germany^  is  called  the  Queen 
of  Boheme^  and  for  her  winning  princely  comportment, 
77te  Queen  of  Hearts.*'^  Ben  Jonson  had  praised  her 
as  a  girl  in  the  speeches  at  Prince  Henry's  barriers  in 
a  stately  passage : 

"...  That  most  princely  maid,  whose  form  might  call 
The  world  to  war,  and  make  it  hazard  all 
His  valour  for  her  beauty ;  she  shall  be 
Mother  of  nations,  and  her  princes  see 
Rivals  almost  to  these."* 

Nor  can  it  be  said  that  these  matters  have  lost  all 
savour  of  political  interest,  since  the  Crown  was  settled 
by  authority  of  Parliament  upon  the  heirs,  being  Pro- 
testants, of  the  Electress  Sophia,  daughter  of  Eliza- 
beth, late  Queen  of  Bohemia. 

On  the  25th  of  October,  161 2,  Prince  Henry  was 
seized  with  a  fever.     Some  attributed  it  to  a  chili  after 

^  Nichols,  Progresses  of  James  I, ,  ii.  523. 

^  Epp.  Ho-El,,  ed.  J.  Jacobs,  1892,  p.  105  (bk.  i.  §  2,  let  7  :  jo  March 
1618).  '  /</.,  p.  112  (bk.  i.  \  2,  let.  12 :  19  March  1622). 

*  Jonson,  Works y  ed.  Gtfford,  1838,  p.  580. 


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DEATH   OF  PRINCE   HENRY  425 

tennis  at  Hampton  Court  and  a  long  swim  in  the  river, 
and  others  to  carelessness  in  diet.  Sir  Simonds  D'Ewes 
preserved  a  tradition  that  the  Prince  was  bewitched 
by  Mrs.  Turner,  at  the  instigation  of  Overbury,  who 
advised  **  removing  out  of  the  way  and  world  that 
royal  youth  by  fascination,  and  was  himself  afterwards 
in  part  an  instrument  for  the  effecting  of  it."^  Even  Sir 
Theodore  de  Mayerne,  the  King's  physician,  was  in 
dread  of  some  planetary  influence,  for  on  the  29th  he 
saw  a  double  rainbow,  with  one  end  in  the  fields  and 
the  other  resting  on  a  room  at  St.  James'  where  a  lady 
had  lately  died.*  A  doctor  at  that  time  required  to 
know  something  of  the  occult,  or,  as  Nick  Culpepper 
told  Mr.  Ward  of  Stratford,  **a  physitian  without 
astrologie"  was  "like  a  pudden  without  fat."*  John 
Chamberlain,  writing  to  Sir  Dudley  Carleton,  said  that 
it  was  a  case  of  *'the  ordinary  ague,"  but  others  put 
it  down  to  **the  New  Disease,"  which  was  breaking 
out  in  all  parts  of  the  country.*  Dr.  C.  Creighton 
considered  that  the  symptoms  pointed  to  typhus,^  and 
Dr.  Norman  Moore  discussed  it  in  the  Reports  of 
St.  Bartholomew's  Hospital  as  **the  earliest  case  of 
typhoid  fever  on  record."* 

The  Hallowmas  plays  and  revels  had  been  com- 
manded for  the  November  festivities;  but  on  the  ist 
of  the  month  all  the  announcements  were  postponed  on 
account  of  a  bad  bulletin  from  St.  James'  House.  The 
next  morning's  report  was  more  favourable  :  **  His 
Highness  was  never  so  well  as  on  this  the  8th  day, 
throughout  the  disease."  But  the  improvement  was 
followed  by  a  relapse,  and  on  the  6th  of  November  the 
Prince  died. 

^  Sir  Simonds  D'Ewes'  Autolnographyy  ed.  Halliwell,  1845,  i.  91. 
^  Nichols,  u,s,y  ii.  477.  '  Vide  supra^  p.  306. 

^  Text  in  Nichols,  «.5.,  ii.  487. 

•  Creighton,  History  of  Epidemics  in  Britain^  189I1  i.  536. 

•  The  Illness  and  Death  of  Henry  ^  Prince  of  Wales^  in  76/2,  1882.  Sec 
elaborate  account  by  Sir  Charles  Comwallis,  in  Nichols,  w.^.,  ii.  469-87. 


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426    PRODUCTION  OF   **THE  TEMPEST" 

A  public  mourning  of  nearly  six  months  was  ordered. 
The  Court  was  to  wear  black  till  the  29th  of  March, 
and  the  wedding  was  fixed  for  May-day.  ^'It  would 
be  thought  absurd,"  writes  Chamberlain,  **  that  foreign 
ambassadors,  coming  to  condole  the  Prince's  death, 
should  find  us  feasting  and  dancing :  so  that  it  is  de- 
ferred till  May-day,"^  The  lying  in  state  lasted  till  the 
7th  of  December,  when  the  Prince  was  buried  in  West- 
minster Abbey. 

The  espousals  or  '^afiSancing  of  the  royal  pair"  took 
place  on  the  27th.  The  mourning  was  interrupted  for 
the  occasion,  and  the  Children  of  the  Revels  from 
Whitefriars  were  allowed  to  act  The  Coxcomb  at 
the  palace.*  The  service  was  conducted  in  French, 
but  according  to  the  English  ritual.  The  Princess 
wore  black  velvet,  ^^semie  of  crosslets  or  quatrefoils 
silver,"  and  a  white  aigrette  in  her  hair.  The  Prince 
was  also  in  black,  and  wore  a  velvet  cloak  ''  caped  with 
gold  lace."  The  Archbishop  presided  at  the  espousals ; 
Sir  Thomas  Lake  gave  out  the  ^^  Moi^  Frideric^^^ 
and  ^^ Mot,  Elisabeth"*.  **  I,  Frederick,  take  thee, 
Elizabeth,  to  my  wedded  wife,"  etc.,  ''and  thereto  I 
plight  thee  my  troth";  "I,  Elizabeth,  take  thee,  Fre- 
derick, to  my  wedded  husband,"  and  so  forth.  The 
translation  was  so  bad,  and  the  i^esponses  were  so 
gabbled  over  and  badly  pronounced,  that  the  Princess 
began  to  laugh,  and  then  broke  into  a  ^^fou  rirey^  in 
which  the  company  joined,  until  the  Archbishop  ended 
the  scene  by  reading  the  blessing.*  The  contract  pro- 
vided that  these  espousals  should  be  followed  by  ''a 
true  and  lawful  marriage,"  because  the  betrothal  of  the 

^  Chamberlain  to  Carieton,  19  Nov.  1612,  in  Dom,  State  Papers,  voL 
Ixxi.  no.  38.     Text  in  Nichols,  u,5,,  ii.  489. 

"  See  F.  G.  Fleay,  Biographical  Chronicle  of  English  Drama,  1891, 
i.  185-6. 

'  See  Chamberlain  to  Carieton,  31  Dec.  1612,  in  Dom,  State  Papers, 
U.S.,  no.  70;  Chamberlain  to  Winwood,  23  Feb.  1612-13,  in  Winwood, 
u,s,,  iii.  434-S;  Nichols,  u,s,  ii.  513-16. 


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ESPOUSALS  OF  THE  PRINCESS       427 

Princess  did  not  amount  to  a  marriage  under  the 
"family  law,"  or  "Law  of  the  Crown,"  though  the 
effect  might  have  been  different  in  the  case  of  an 
ordinary  subject. 

As  soon  as  the  betrothal  was  over,  the  Palsgrave's 
counsellors  began  to  press  for  an  advancement  of  the 
marriage,  the  Prince  being  anxious  to  return  to  Heidel- 
berg, and  hoping  to  start  about  the  middle  of  April. 
The  Court  mourning  barely  lasted  over  Twelfth-night. 
On  the  5th  of  January  the  children  from  Whitefriars 
acted  Cupid's  Revenge  before  Prince  Charles,  the  Lady 
Elizabeth,  and  the  Prince  Palatine,  the  Princess  still 
retaining  her  relative  rank.^  After  the  play  Sir  Thomas 
Lake  wrote  to  his  friend  Carleton :  "  The  black  is 
wearing  out,  and  the  marriage  pomps  preparing."^ 
The  household  was  subscribing  for  a  masque,  and  the 
Inns  of  Court  were  busy  at  magnificent  shows. 

The  river  sports  at  Shrovetide  formed  the  people's 
share  of  the  festivities.  They  began  on  the  nth  of 
February  with  a  show  of  fireworks  in  front  of  the 
galleries  at  Whitehall.  The  artillery  roared  from 
Lambeth  while  St.  George  fought  the  dragon,  and  the 
deer  was  chased  by  flaming  hounds ;  "  and  as  the 
culverins  played  upon  the  Earth,  the  fire-works  danced 
in  the  air."  When  the  smoke  cleared  off,  a  Christian 
fleet  was  seen  advancing  against  a  Turkish  fortress, 
"ships  and  gallies  bravely  rigd  with  top  and  top- 
gallant, their  flagges  and  streamers  waving  like  men- 
of-warr."  On  the  Saturday  there  was  a  sea-fight  off 
Whitehall  Stairs  between  Christian  and  Turkish  fleets 
rigged  out  by  Mr.  Bettis,  the  chief  shipwright  at 
Chatham.  A  fort  called  the  Castle  of  Argier  had  been 
set  up  at  Stangate,  in  Lambeth,  "environed  with 
craggie  rocks  as  the  Castle  is  now  situate  in  Turkie." 

*  Fleay,  tt,j.,  i.  186-7. 

^  Lake  to  Carleton,  6  Jan.  161 3,  in  Dom,  State  Papers^  vol.  Ixxii, 
no.  6k 


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428    PRODUCTION  OF  "THE  TEMPEST" 

The  Algerine  pirates  first  captured  a  Spanish  argosy 
and  two  Venetian  ships,  and  then  an  English  fleet  was 
seen  "with  their  red  crost  streamers  most  gallantly 
waving  in  the  ayre."  The  English  Admiral  took  the 
pirate's  galleys  and  the  castle  itself,  and  the  Turkish 
Commander,  "  attired  in  a  red  jacket  with  blue  sleeves,*' 
and  all  his  bashaws  and  officers,  were  taken  to  the 
private  stairs,  where  the  Prince  Palatine  and  the  Lady 
Elizabeth  were  stationed.^ 

On  Shrove  Sunday,  being  St.  Valentine's  Day,  the 
marriage  took  place  in  the  Chapel-Royal  at  Whitehall. 
From  Henry  Peacham's  Period  of  Mourning,  &c.j  with 
Nuptiall  Hymnes^  we  learn  that  it  was  a  "sunshine 
wedding  " : 

'^  Heaven,  the  first,  hath  throwne  away 
Her  weary  weede  of  mourning  hew, 
And  waites  Eliza's  Wedding-day 
In  starry-spangled  gown  of  blew." 

The  ceremonies  are  described  in  the  "  Old  Cheque-book 
of  the  Chapel,"  and  in  a  tract  by  William  Burley, 
which  has  been  quoted  already.  The  procession 
started  from  the  council  chamber,  on  the  river-side  of 
Holbein's  gate,  and  passed  through  the  presence-room 
and  guard-chamber  to  a  banqueting-house  erected  for 
the  occasion,  and  then  crossed  the  courtyard  by  a  plat- 
form set  up  near  the  north  gate,  and  thence  to  the 
great  chamber  near  the  tilt-yard,  and  through  the 
lobby,  and  downstairs  to  the  chapel,  *'  into  which  this 
Royal  troupe  marched  in  this  order "  ;  first  came  the 
bridegroom,  arrayed  in  cloth  of  silver  (called  ''white 
satin"  in  some  accounts),  richly  embroidered  with 
silver,  with  all  the  young  gallants  and  gentlemen  of 
the  Court ;  but  there  entered  the  chapel  only  sixteen 
young  bachelors,  so  many  as  the  bridegroom  was 
years  old.  When  he  was  seated,  the  bride  was  intro- 
duced:  "the  Lady  Elizabeth,"  says  Burley,  *'in  her 

*  Tract  by  William  Burley,  printed  in  Nichols,  m.j,,  ii.  539-41. 


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THE   MARRIAGE  CEREMONY  429 

virgin-robes,  clothed  in  a  gowne  of  white  sattin  .  •  . 
upon  her  head  a  crown  of  refined  golde,  made  Imperiall 
by  the  pearls  and  diamonds  thereupon  placed,  which 
were  so  thicke  beset  that  they  stood  like  shining 
pinnacles  upon  her  amber-coloured  haire,  dependantly 
hanging  pla)rted  downe  over  her  shoulders  to  her 
waste."  ^  The  description  in  the  official  record  is  even 
more  picturesque :  **  She  was  supported  or  ledd  by  the 
Prince  Charles  on  the  righte  hand,  and  the  Earl  of 
Northampton,  Lord  Privie  Seale,  on  the  left  hand, 
attended  with  16  younge  Ladies  and  Gentlewomen  of 
honor  bearinge  her  traine,  which  was  of  cloth  of  silver 
as  her  gowne  was,  her  hayre  hanginge  doune  at  length 
dressed  with  ropes  of  pearle,  and  a  Coronett  uppon 
her  head  richly  dect  with  precious  stones."^  Opinions 
differed  about  the  appearance  of  the  King  and  Queen. 
The  official  report  described  them  as  gloriously  arrayed. 
The  King  wore  the  great  diamond  in  his  felt  hat ;  but 
John  Chamberlain  wrote:  "The  King,  me  thought, 
was  somewhat  strangely  attired,  in  a  cap  and  feathers, 
with  a  Spanish  cope  and  a  long  stocking."  The 
Queen  wore  all  her  jewels,  "a  Lady  walled  about  with 
diamonds  " ;  and  it  was  agreed  on  all  sides  that  their 
Majesties  must  have  carried  at  least  a  million's  worth 
of  jewels  between  them.' 

The  form  of  the  banns  is  preserved  in  the  Old  Cheque- 
book of  the  Chapel-Royal  at  Whitehall.  The  first 
asking  was  in  these  terms,  and  they  were  all  in  a 
similar  form  :  "  I  aske  the  banes  of  matrimonie  be- 
tween the  two  great  Princes,  Fredericke  Prince  Elector 
Count  Palatine  of  Reine  of  the  one  partie,  and  the 
Lady  Elizabethe  her  Grace,  the  only  daughter  of  the 
highe  and  mightie  King  of  Great  Brittany  of  the  other 

*  /rf.,  pp.  541-9- 

>  Old  Cheque-book  of  the  Chapel  Royal^  ecL  Rimbault,  p.  164. 
'  Chamberlain  to  Alice  Carieton,  18  Feb.  16 13,  in  Dom.  State  Papers^ 
Ixxii.  no.  30.     Text  in  Nichols,  «.;.,  ii.  5S8. 


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430    PRODUCTION  OF   "THE  TEMPEST" 

partie.  If  any  man  can  shew  any  cause  why  these  two 
Princes  may  not  be  lawfully  joyned  in  matrimony,  let 
him  speake,  for  this  is  [the  first  time  of  asking]."  The 
memorandum  continues :  "  First  asked  in  the  Chappell 
at  Whithall  the  last  daye  of  Januarie,  1612,  (1613,  New 
Style),  and  there  also  the  second  of  Februarie  next 
foUowinge  the  second  tyme,  and  the  third  tjrme  at 
Winsore  the  7th  daie  of  the  foresaid  Februarie.  The 
Prince  Palatine  beinge  installed  Knight  of  the  Garter 
the  same  daie."^  Mention  is  made  in  Ward's  Diary  of 
a  double  calling  of  the  banns;  Mr.  Washburn,  of 
Oriel,  was  the  Vicar's  authority :  "  I  have  heard  that 
King  James  would  have  his  daughter  askt  three  times 
in  the  church,  which  accordingly  shee  was,  in  St. 
Margaret's,  Westminster."* 

The  whole  assembly  being  settled  in  their  places, 
the  service  began  with  an  anthem,  followed  by  a 
sermon  by  the  Dean  (James  Montague,  Bishop  of 
Bath  and  Wells) ;  while  another  anthem  was  in  sing- 
ing, the  Archbishop  and  Dean  put  on  their  ^'rich 
copes,"  and  after  the  singing  was  over  ascended 
the  steps  of  the  throne,  '*  where  these  Two  great 
Princes  were  married  by  the  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, in  all  points  according  to  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer;  the  Prince  Palatine  speaking  the  words  of 
marriage  in  English  after  the  Archbishop."' 

Their  Majesties  retired  after  the  wedding,  the  bride 
and  bridegroom  dining  in  state  in  the  new  banqueting- 
hall ;  ^  and  after  dinner  the  household  presented  Tlie 
Masque  of  Frantics^  composed  by  Dr.  Campion,  with 
scenery  by  Inigo  Jones.*  There  was  a  revolving  firma- 
ment, and  stars  moving  in  their  spheres.  "  I  suppose,'* 
said  Campion,  **fewe  have  ever  seene  more  neate  arti- 
fice than  Master  Innigoe  Jones  showed  in  contriving" 

*  Old  Chegue-Book,  u.s.,  p.  163.  *  Vtdg  supra^  p.  254. 

»  Tract  in  Nichols,  tt.s.,  ii.  546-7.  *  /rf.,  548. 

'  The  Lords*  Maske^  printed  in  Nichols,  «cf.,  ii.  554-65. 


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SHROVE  SUNDAY  AND  MONDAY,  1613    431 

this  ''  motion/'  ^  The  argument  was  dull,  and  wanting 
in  light  and  shade ;  all  the  characters  were  mad,  and 
the  ladies  complained  that  ^'it  was  more  like  a  Play 
than  a  Masque."  ^ 

Shrove  Monday  was  devoted  to  sports  in  the  tilt- 
yard.  The  tilting  itself  was  arranged  like  a  scene  in 
a  comedy.  The  King  took  the  ring  on  his  spear  three 
times,  and  the  trumpets  sounded,  and  the  people 
shouted  for  joy.  The  Palatine  took  it  twice,  and  the 
crowd  roared  again,  and  his  own  silver  trumpets 
saluted  the  Prince  of  the  Rhine.  Little  Prince  Charles 
rode  five  times  and  scored  four  rings,  '^  a  sight  of  much 
admiration,  and  an  exceeding  comfort  to  all  the  land."' 
The  glory  of  such  sports,  said  Lord  Bacon,  depended 
on  the  **  bravery"  of  the  liveries,  and  the  "goodly 
furniture  "  of  the  horses  and  armour,^  so  that  perhaps 
we  should  mention  some  of  the  tradesmen,  whose  bills 
are  preserved  to  this  day.  The  Guards  wore  scarlet, 
with  velvet  facings,  provided  by  Mr.  Danson,  His 
Majesty's  tailor;  the  spangles  and  circles  came  from 
Mr.  Giles  Simpson,  the  Court  goldsmith ;  and  all  the 
embroidery  was  supplied  by  Mr.  William  Broderick, 
successor  to  Mr.  Parr  of  Blackfriars,  who  had  been 
£or  twenty-five  years  embroiderer  to  Queen  Elizabeth 
and  the  reigning  King. 

In  the  evening,  the  gentlemen  of  Lincoln's  Inn  and 
the  Middle  Temple  rode  in  procession  through  the 
Strand  to  Whitehall.  They  started  from  the  Rolls 
House  in  Chancery  Lane,  Sir  Edward  Phelips  leading 
the  way,  with  witty  Dick  Martin,  whom  the  King 
delighted  to  honour.  Sixty  gentlemen  rode  after  them 
upon  armoured  chargers,  with  torch-bearers  and  pages 
at  their  sides.  Then  came  a  rabble-rout  of  boys  on 
ponies  and  donkeys,  with  monkey-faces  for  the  anti- 
masque;  they  wore  Italian  hats  and  cart-wheel  rufis, 

^  /(/.»  P-  558*  *  Chamberlain  to  Wtnwood,  «.5.,  p.  426,  note  3. 

'  Tract  in  Nichols,  u.s.f  ii.  549-50.  ^  Bacon,  Essays,  xxxvii. 


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432    PRODUCTION   OF   ''THE  TEMPEST" 

or  starched  '^  pickadills/'  and  as  they  rode  they  tossed 
handfuls  of  **  cockle-demoys  "  among  the  crowd.  After 
them  came  the  cars  and  pageants.  In  one  of  them  the 
musicians  sat,  disguised  as  Virginian  conjurers,  in 
turbans  lit  up  with  fireflies  and  bright  with  plumes ;  in 
another  sat  the  Emperor  Powhatan  and  his  Indian 
lords ;  and  in  a  third  the  Goddess  of  Honour  was  en- 
throned, arrayed  in  welkin-blue,  and  her  fair  tresses 
'Mn  tucks  braided  up  with  silver."  On  reaching  the 
Palace  the  cortege  passed  through  the  gateway  by 
Scotland  Yard,  and  so  through  the  tilt-yard  into  the 
park,  riding  round  the  buildings  till  they  came  to 
the  banqueting-hall ;  and  here  they  performed  the 
masque,  written  by  George  Chapman,  and  sang  the 
nuptial  ode,  which  appears  in  the  printed  book.^ 

On  Shrove  Tuesday  the  King  held  a  grand  recep- 
tion. *'In  the  evening,"  wrote  Chamberlain,  "there 
was  much  expectation  of  a  Play,  to  be  acted  in  the 
Great  Hall  by  the  King's  Players,  and  many  hundreds 
of  people  were  taking  up  their  positions  for  it.  But  it 
had  been  arranged  that  the  Gentlemen  of  the  Inner 
Temple  and  Gray's  Inn  should  present  a  Masque  called 
The  Marriage  of  the  Thames  and  Rhine^  devised  by  Sir 
Francis  Bacon,  with  words  by  Frank  Beaumont."*  This 
entertainment  brought  in  many  witty  allusions  to  The 
Tempest.  The  procession  came  by  water,  from  Win- 
chester House  upon  Bank-side  up  the  river  to  White- 
hall Stairs,  and  the  gateway  between  the  crowded  long 
windows  of  the  galleries.  The  dresses,  it  was  agreed, 
were  magnificent.  Sir  Francis  and  the  poet  in  velvet, 
the  masqueraders  in  cloth  of  gold,  "with  other  robes," 
said  the  ladies,  "of  much  delight  and  pleasure."  All 
went  well  at  first,  John  Chamberlain  reports  in  a  letter 
of  gossip  to  Miss  Alice  Carleton ;    but  when   they 

^  Tract  in  Nichols,  w.5.,  ii.  550- 1,    See  Chamberlain's  letter  of  18  Feb., 
u.f.,  and  full  account  of  procession  and  masque  in  Nichols,  ti.  566-86. 
3  Printed  in  Nichols,  w.jr.,  ii.  591-600. 


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MASQUE  OF  THE  TWO   INNS         433 

reached  the  hall,  **0,  spite  of  spites,"  there  was 
nothing  but  a  new  Comedy  of  Errors.  **  By  what  ill 
planet  it  fell  out  I  know  not ;  they  came  home  as  they 
went  without  doing  anything."  The  King  was  tired 
out  and  dazed  with  sleep.  Bacon  remembered  what 
His  Majesty  had  said  when  the  Prince  was  becoming 
too  popular.  "They  are  trying  to  bury  me  quick," 
said  King  James.  They  tried  to  rouse  him  with  an 
echo  of  his  royal  wit:  **Nay,  your  Majesty,  do  not 
bury  us  quick  I"  **  Well  then,"  said  the  King,  **you 
must  bury  me  quick,  for  I  can  last  no  longer."  The 
masque  was  perforce  adjourned  until  the  Saturday 
evening ;  and  the  gentlemen  went  sadly  back  to  their 
barges,  having  shown  all  their  new  dresses  for  nothing. 
When  they  returned  on  the  Saturday,  they  were  shown 
into  the  banqueting-hall,  where  noisy  revels  were 
going  on,  and  there  was  a  terrible  squeezing  and 
jostling.^  "All  is  nothing,"  Lord  Bacon  notes  in  his 
Essay,  "except  the  room  be  kept  clear  and  neat"* 
The  Lady  Bess  came  in  to  see  the  masque,  though  she 
had  been  laughing  all  the  afternoon  over  The  Dutch 
Courtesan^  as  presented  by  her  own  players  in  the 
Cock-pit.  The  show  passed  off  very  well,  amid  showers 
of  compliments ;  and  Sir  Francis  Bacon  and  his  friend 
Beaumont,  with  forty  other  "  Inns-of-Court  Men,"  were 
invited  to  a  solemn  banquet  in  the  same  pavilion  next 
night. 

The  King  won  the  expenses  of  the  banquet  from  the 
Palatine  and  his  German  knights  in  a  Sunday  morning 
tilt.  The  winners  had  all  the  amusement,  for  the  room 
was  so  small  that  there  was  no  space  for  the  losers  to 
sit  down ;  and  a  letter  from  young  Lady  Rich  is  still 
preserved  among  the  State  Papers,  complaining  that 
her  husband  "had  to  pay  ^^30,  and  could  not  even 
have  a  drink  for  his  money.*' 

*  /of.,  pp.  589-90.  *  Bacon,  «.s. 


2  F 


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434    PRODUCTION  OF  *'THE   TEMPEST' 


II 

PLAYS  ACTED  AT  WHITEHALL  AND  HAMPTON  COURT,  1613— 
STORY  OF  THE  **  VERTUB  MSS." 

It  is  possible  to  get  near  the  exact  date  at  which  The 
Tempest  was  performed  in  the  pretty  Court-theatre  at 
Whitehall.  We  have  the  list  of  plays  shown  before 
Prince  Charles,  the  Lady  Elizabeth,  and  the  Pals- 
grave, who  was  styled  ** Prince  Palatine"  after  the 
espousals  ;  and  since  that  contract,  said  Chamberlain, 
was  ''usually  prayed  for  in  the  Church  among  the 
King's  Children."^  After  the  wedding  he  was  com- 
monly called  **His  Highness,  Count  Palatine."  We 
have  seen  that  the  Princess  had  precedence,  till  she 
was  married,  so  that  we  know  which  plays  were  acted 
before  February  the  14th  ;  but  after  that  day  there  was 
an  immediate  change,  which  may  be  illustrated  by  the 
following  examples.  On  the  20th  of  February  her 
company  were  paid  the  usual  £6.  13^.  4^.  for  acting 
Cockle-demqy^  before  Bacon  and  Beaumont  presented 
their  masque,  the  comedy  being  played  ''before  the 
Prince's  Highness  Count  Palatine  Elector  and  the 
Lady  Elizabeth";  and  on  June  the  7th,  William 
Rowley  was  paid  on  behalf  of  the  Prince's  Company 
for  performing  the  first  and  second  parts  of  TTie  Knaves 
on  the  2nd  and  the  5th  of  March,  "before  His  High- 
ness Count  Palatine  and  the  Lady  Elizabeth."^  We 
know  that  from  the  9th  of  January  the  Court-mourning 
had  been  relaxed,  so  that  it  became  allowable  to  enjoy 
the  sorrows  of  the  stage.  The  King  left  London  for 
Royston  and  Newmarket  on  January  the  nth,  the 
Prince  Palatine  remaining  in  town.    John  Chamberlain 

^  Chamberlain  to  Winwood,  9  Jan.  161 2-13.  Text  in  Winwood, 
u^s.t  ii.  421  ;   Nichols,  UnS.^  ii.  515. 

'  P.  Cunning-ham,  Plays  acted  at  -  Court  Anno  r6ij  (Shakespeare 
Society's  Papers,  1844-9,  ii.  124). 


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PLAYS   AT  WHITEHALL  435 

wrote  to  Sir  Ralph  Winwood  on  the  subject.  "The 
day  of  the  King's  departure  hence,  the  Lord  Arch- 
bishop feasted  the  Palsgrave's  followers,  which  he  took 
so  kindly  that,  when  they  were  ready  to  sit  down, 
himself  came,  though  he  were  neither  invited  nor  ex- 
pected. The  Entertainment  was  very  great,  and  such 
as  became  the  giver  and  receiver.  The  Prince  Palatine 
goes  to  be  installed  at  Windsor  the  seventh  of  the  next 
month.  .  .  .  Yesternight  (the  28th  of  January),  the 
Prince  Palatine  feasted  all  the  Councill  at  Essex  House, 
where,  in  regard  of  the  good  entertainment  he  found 
with  the  Archbishop,  he  showed  more  kindness  and 
caresses  to  him  and  his  followers  than  to  all  the  rest 
put  together."^ 

We  may  fairly  suppose  that  soon  after  the  King's  de- 
parture the  Royal  Company  were  ordered  to  attend  with 
their  repertoire.  We  take  an  early  date  for  convenience, 
and  reckon  that  the  Royal  Company  began  their  set 
of  fourteen  plays  for  the  Princess  about  the  15th 
January.  The  King  returned  to  Whitehall  on  the 
2nd  of  February  and  left  again  on  the  5th.  There  is 
a  separate  list  of  plays  presented  before  him  on  a 
different  scale  of  payments ;  and  it  is  possible  that  in 
the  short  stay  in  London  he  may  have  seen  "one  play 
called  A  bad  beginning  makes  a  good  ending^^^  perhaps 
a  shorter  version  of  Airs  Well  that  ends  Welly  Fletcher's 
Captain,  or  Jonson's  Alchemist.  The  Palatine's  absence 
at  Windsor  and  his  attendance  at  the  public  sports 
when  he  returned  fill  up  the  period  so  closely  that  we 
may  suppose  the  fourteen  plays  to  have  been  acted 
during  the  last  sixteen  days  of  January,  omitting  the 
28th,  on  account  of  the  entertainment  at  Essex  House. 
The  Tempest  was  sixth  on  the  list,  so  that  it  was  prob- 
ably performed  on  the  21st  of  January,  or  close  upon 
that  time.* 

^  Chamberlain  to  Winwood,  29  Jan.  1612-13.  Text  in  Winwood, 
tt.^.,  ti.  428-30;  Nichols,  «.;.,  ii.  517.  *  Cunningham,  «.f.,  p.  125. 


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436    PRODUCTION  OF   ''THE  TEMPEST" 

The  Palatine  was  installed  in  St.  George's  Chapel 
on  the  7th  of  February.  Mr.  Nichols  gives  us  an 
account  of  the  ceremony  from  the  relation  of  Mr. 
Howes:  "The  Palsgrave  in  person,  and  the  Grave 
Maurice  by  his  deputie  Count  Lodowic  of  Nassau,  his 
cousin,  were  installed  as  Knights  of  the  Garter  at 
Windsor,  in  the  presence  of  the  King,  Prince,  and 
Nobility."^  We  learn  from  a  letter  from  Chamberlain 
to  Sir  Dudley  Carleton  that  the  King  and  the  Princes 
came  back  to  London  on  Tuesday,  the  9th  of  February.^ 
We  may  allow  two  days  for  the  journey  to  Windsor, 
for  the  preparations  and  unpacking,  and  perhaps  a 
day's  rest  after  a  long,  cold  ride.  We  can  imagine  the 
bustle  and  tumult  through  the  whole  countryside  by 
reading  what  the  Welsh  parson  said  of  all  the  hosts  "  of 
Readins,  of  Maidenhead,  of  Colebrook,  of  horses  and 
money,"  and  remembering  from  the  same  Merry  Wives 
of  Windsor  how  Dr.  Caius  bawled  in  French-English 
for  the  host  of  the  Garter :  **  Here,  Master  Doctor,  in 
perplexity  and  doleful  dilemma."  "I  cannot  tell  vat 
is  dat ;  but  it  is  tell-a  me  dat  you  make  grand  prepara- 
tion for  a  duke  de  Jamany."* 

The  lists  of  plays  acted  at  Court,  as  it  appears  in  the 
Shakespeare  Sociefy's  Papers^  was  said  to  be  taken 
'*from  the  accounts  of  Lord  Harrington,  Treasurer  of 
the  Chamber  to  King  James  L"  Mr.  Cunningham,  who 
edited  the  article,  intended  perhaps  to  refer  to  John, 
Lord  Harington  of  Exton,  cousin  of  Sir  John  Haring- 
ton,  translator  of  the  Orlando.^  The  list  is  to  be 
ascribed  in  reality  to  John,  Lord  Stanhope  of  Harring- 
ton, who  was  Lord  Treasurer  of  the  King's  chamber 

^  Nichols,  u,s.f  li.  522-3. 

^  Chamberlain  to  Carleton,  11  Feb.  1613,  Dam»  State  Papers,  Ixxii. 
no.  26.     Text  in  Nichols,  u,s.,  ii.  524. 

*  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor,  iv.  5,  80-9. 

^  Lord  Harington  of  Exton  had  been  guardian  of  the  Princess  in 
1605;  he  escorted  her  to  Germany  after  her  marriage,  and  died  at 
Worms  as  he  returned. 


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LORD  STANHOPE  OF  HARRINGTON    437 

in  1613,  and  held  the  ofBce  till  1618.  The  reversion 
to  his  place  had  at  one  time  been  procured  for  the 
unfortunate  Overbury ;  but  it  was  purchased  by 
Sir  William  Uvedale  soon  after  "the  poisoning 
business."^ 

The  Treasurer  of  the  Chamber  was  in  effect  the 
director  of  the  King's  amusements.  As  King  James 
loved  outdoor  sports,  Lord  Stanhope's  business  was 
chiefly  concerned  with  hunting  and  hawking  at  Theo- 
balds Park.  There  are  numerous  entries  on  the  sub- 
ject among  the  Domestic  State  Papers  and  the  copies 
of  Danish  Archives  at  the  Public  Record  Office.  We 
may  read  of  the  gerfalcons  from  Iceland,  a  herd  of 
great  stags  from  Denmark,  tame  elks  brought  from  the 
forests  between  Norway  and  Sweden,  and  a  cheetah,  or 
hunting-leopard,  which  we  assume  to  have  been  *'a 
present  from  the  Sophy."  The  Treasurer  accounted 
for  the  expense  of  the  never-ending  progresses,  the 
hunting  at  Royston,  the  tennis  at  Hampton  Court,  the 
plays,  masques,  and  Court  entertainments. 

By  the  list  before  us  we  find  that  The  Tempest  must 
have  been  acted  at  Whitehall  about  the  22nd  of  January, 
1612,  Old  Style,  or  1613,  by  the  '^historical  reckoning." 
The  accounts  show  a  payment  to  Mr.  John  Heminge  of 
;^93.  dr.  8rf.  for  presenting  fourteen  several  plays.  This 
was  the  correct  amount,  according  to  the  ancient  scale 
of  fees;  but  in  some  copies,  and  among  others  in 
Mr.  Cunningham's  paper,  the  amount  was  stated  as 
;^94.  dr.  8rf.,  perhaps  merely  a  copyist's  error. 

The  Privy  Council  records  show  that  John  Heminge, 
as  Treasurer  to  the  King's  Players,  received  ;^8o  on 
a  warrant  of  the  19th  of  May,  161 3,  for  eight  perform- 
ances before  His  Majesty.  Some  of  them  may  have 
taken  place  at  Whitehall ;  but  Steevens  puts  down 
six  of  them,  at  any  rate,  as   having   been   shown   at 

^  See  Dom,  State  Papers,  i  July  1615  (vol.  Ixxxi.),  and  letter  from 
Chamberlain  to  Carleton,  13  July  {jhid,,  no.  15). 


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438    PRODUCTION  OF   "THE  TEMPEST" 

Hampton  Court.  ^  The  amount  of  £80  was  made  up 
as  follows.  The  official  fee  for  a  play  was  ten  marks,  or 
£6.  ly.  4^. ;  when  the  King  was  present,  he  added  a  gift 
of  ten  nobles,  or  £3.  6s.  8rf.  The  mark  and  noble  were 
"monies  of  account,"  the  one  taken  at  ly.  4^.  and  the 
other  at  6s.  8d.  The  King's  gift  of  ten  nobles  made 
the  ten  marks  into  ten  pounds. 

Six  of  these  plays  are  mentioned  in  the  Lord 
Treasurer's  account,  under  the  titles  of  A  Bad  Begins 
fling  makes  a  Good  Endings  The  Captain^  The  Alchemist^ 
"one  other,  CardanOy  one  other,  Hotspur ^  and  one  other 
called  Benedicite  and  Betteris " ;  the  account  ending, 
"paid  fortie  poundes,  and  by  way  of  his  Majestie's 
rewarde  twenty  pounds  more,  in  all  ;^6a"  Cardenno, 
or  Cardenuif  was  also  acted,  according  to  the  Lord 
Treasurer's  accounts,  on  the  8th  of  June,  1613,  before 
the  Duke  of  Savoy's  Ambassador.  It  was  one  of  these 
plays,  not  even  included  in  the  "spurious  list,"  which 
was  attributed  to  Shakespeare  by  audacious  booksellers 
long  after  his  death.* 

The  fourteen  plays  were  acted  before  Prince  Charles, 
the  Lady  Elizabeth,  and  Frederick,  Prince  Palatine, 
with  their  lords  and  ladies  in  attendance.  The 
titles  of  the  plays  are  given  in  the  order  of  their  per- 
formance on  those  leaves  of  Lord  Stanhope's  office- 
book,  which  are  often  called  "the  Vertue  MSS."  The 
memoranda  run  as  follows:  ^^ Itenij  paid  to  John 
Heminges  uppon  the  Cowncell's  warrant  dated  att 
Whitehall  XX®  die  Maii,  1613,  for  presentinge  before 
the  Princes  Highnes,  the  Lady  Elizabeth,  and  the 
Prince  Pallatyne  Elector,  fowerteene  severalle  playes, 
viz.,  one  playe  called  Pilaster y  one  other  called  the 
Knott  of  FooleSy  one  other  Much  Adoe  abowte  nothinge^ 
the  Mayed^s  Tragedy ^  the  merye  dyvell  of  Edmonton, 

^  Steevens,  Shakespeare ^  e<L  Reed,  1803,  vi.  183. 

^  Cunningham,  w.^.,  p.  125.  See  New  Shakspere  Society's  Transactums^ 
1895-6,  part  ti.  p.  419. 


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**THE   MAID'S  TRAGEDY,"  ETC.        439 

the  Tempest,  A  Kinge  and  no  kinge,  the  Tvnns  Tragedie^ 
the  Winters  Tale,  Sir  John  Falstafe,  the  Moore  of 
Venice,  the  Nobleman,  Caesar's  Tragedye,  and  one  other 
called  Lome  lyes  a  bleedinge^  all  which  playes  weare 
played  within  the  time  of  this  accompte,  viz.,  iiij**  xiij 
lu  vis.  viijd.'^ 

The  full  title  of  the  first  play  was  Philaster;  or^  Lome 
lies  a-bleeding*  It  has  been  supposed  that  this  master- 
piece of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher  was  twice  commanded 
by  the  Princess ;  but  the  list,  on  the  other  hand,  was 
announced  as  containing  '*  fourteen  several  Plays,"  and 
it  seems  likely  that  the  last  entry  referred  to  some  short 
interlude  adapted  from  the  famous  original.  Philaster 
and  TTie  Maiis  Tragedy  long  continued  to  be  the 
objects  of  universal  admiration  ;  and  Waller  expressed 
the  popular  verdict,  though  his  neat  mind  was  shocked 
at  their  vigour  of  thought  and  language : 

'*  Of  all  our  elder  plays 
This  and  Philaster  have  the  loudest  fame  ; 
Great  are  their  faults,  and  glorious  is  their  flame. 
In  both  our  English  genius  is  expressed  ; 
Lofty  and  bold,  but  negligendy  dressed."^ 

The  plot  of  The  MauTs  Tragedy  is  flat  regicide,  and 
it  was  not  surprising  that  Charles  IL  was  disposed  to 
prohibit  its  performance;  but  Waller  retouched  the 
piece  with  such  zeal  that  everyone  was  killed  except  the 
King,  and  it  was  found  necessary  in  a  still  later  version 
to  despatch  the  King  after  all.*  *'It  was  agreeable," 
said  his  editor,  *Ho  the  sweetness  of  Mr.  Waller's  temper, 
to  soften  the  rigor  of  the  Tragedy  .  .  .  but,  whether 
it  be  so  agreeable  to  the  nature  of  Tragedy  it  self,  to 
make  everything  come  off  easily,  I  leave  to  the  Critics."^ 

^  Proio§:ue  to  The  Maid's  Tragtdy  in  Waller's  Pbems,  ed.  G.  Thorn 
Drury,  1893,  p.  224. 

"  See  A,  W.  Ward,  Eng^.  Dram.  Lit,,  1893,  ii.  673,  where  the  doubtful 
reason  of  the  impending  prohibition  is  discussed  in  a  note. 

•  Elijah  Fenton,  Preface  to  the  second  part  of  Waller's  Poems,  1729, 
pp.  446-7. 


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440    PRODUCTION  OF   "THE  TEMPEST" 

A  King  and  no  King  of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher 
was  a  fine  piece,  "always  received  with  applause." 
Rymer  made  a  severe  attack  upon  it  in  his  letter  on  the 
Tragedies  of  the  Last  Age.  He  seemed  to  forget  that 
the  plays  in  Shakespeare's  time  were  not  tragedies  or 
comedies  on  the  strict  classical  model,  but  scenes  from 
human  life,  which  you  might  call  tragicomedies,  or 
interludes,  or  what  one  pleased.  A  King  and  no  King 
was  licensed  in  i6ii.  The  plot,  it  was  admitted,  had 
proportion  or  shape,  and  "(at  the  first  sight)  an  outside 
fair  enough."  But  the  characters  were  not  like  Rymer's 
classical  favourites.  They  were  "all  improbable  and 
improper  in  the  highest  degree,"  he  said,  and  ran  quite 
wide  of  the  design  ;  "  nothing  could  be  imagined  more 
contrary. "  "  We  blunder  along  without  the  least  streak 
of  life,  till  in  the  last  act  we  stumble  on  the  Plot,  lying 
all  in  a  lump  together."  The  Queen  is  nothing  but  a 
Patient  Grissel,  and  Panthea  must  have  had  "a  knock 
in  her  cradle  ;  so  soft  she  is  at  all  points,  and  so  silly. 
No  Linsey-woolsey  Shepherdess  but  must  have  more 
soul  in  her,  and  more  sense  of  decency  (not  to  say) 
honour,"^ 

The  Merry  Devil  of  Edmonton^  the  next  piece  of  im- 
portance, was  a  stock  piece  at  the  Globe,  where  the 
prentices  rejoiced  in  the  tavern-wit  and  the  merry 
knight  who  reminded  them  of  FalstafF.*  The  author- 
ship of  the  piece  is  unknown.  It  was  printed  in  the 
volume  labelled  Shakespeare^ s  Plays ^  vol.  ii.,  which 
belonged  to  Charles  the  Second's  library.  It  was  even 
licensed  as  "  by  Shakespeare"  in  the  Statumet^s  Register 
for  1653  ;  and  after  the  Restoration  it  was  sold  by  Kirk- 
man,  the  bookseller,  with  Shakespeare's  name  on  the 

*  Rymer,  Tragedies  of  the  Last  Age y  1678,  pp.  56-7a 

'  Howell  mentions  the  play  under  the  name  of  "  Smug  the  Smith," 

from  one  of  its  popular  characters,  in  Epp,  Ho-El. ,  p.  247  (i.  §  5,  let.  i. : 

Yorkt  i^  July  1627).     See  id.y  p.  451  (ii.  let.  54:   Westm.^  17  Oct,  1634). 

Mr.  Jacobs,  in  his  notes,  apparently  has  overlooked  the  fact  that  this  is 

a  synonym  for  The  Merry  Devil, 


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'•A  KING  AND  NO  KING,"  ETC.       441 

title.  ^  Charles  Lamb  quoted  certain  passages  to  show, 
by  way  of  excuse,  that  the  play  had  something  of 
Shakespeare's  sweetness  and  good  nature.  **  It  seems 
written  to  make  the  reader  happy.  Few  of  our  drama- 
tists or  novelists  have  attended  enough  to  this.  They 
torture  and  wound  us  abundantly.  They  are  econom- 
ists only  in  delight.''  He  wished  that  Michael  Drayton 
could  be  shown  to  have  written  the  piece,^  but  for  this 
there  was  no  evidence,  except  a  story  of  Mr.  Coxeter, 
the  bookseller,  who  had  seen  a  copy  with  a  memor- 
andum that  it  was  **by  Michael  Drayton."  William 
Oldys  had  heard  the  same  thing,  but  did  not  lend  his 
authority  to  the  suggestion ;  and  on  the  subject  of 
Dra3rton's  works  the  judgment  of  Oldys  is  supreme.' 
Hazlitt  ascribed  the  play  to  Thomas  Heywood,^  but  in 
this  case  also  there  is  a  complete  absence  of  proof. 

The  Knot  of  Fools  may  have  been  Chapman's  All 
Fools,  though  the  word  ''knot"  implies  a  limit  of 
number.*  There  was  also  a  "comical-moral"  piece, 
called  Two  Wise  Men  and  All  the  Rest  Fools,^  but  as 
it  was  in  seven  long  acts  we  can  hardly  suppose  that 
it  was  included  in  the  performances  ''by  Command." 
Little  or  nothing  is  known  of  the  other  plays  on  the  list. 
The  Nobleman  suggests  the  title  of  Fletcher's  JVoble 
Gentleman^  but  this  was  not  licensed  till  3rd  February, 
1626.^  As  to  The  Twins  J  there  was  a  tragi-comedy  of 
that  name,  by  William  Rider,  acted  by  Davenant's 
Company  at  Salisbury  Court,^  but  nothing  seems  to  be 

^  Lang^baine,  Acct,  Eng,  Dram,  Poets y  1691,  p.  541. 
^  Lamb,  Specimens  of  English  Dramatic  Poets  j  (Bohn's  ecL),  p.  48,  note. 
'  Oldys'  MS.,  note  to  Lang'baine  tt.^.,  p.  541  :  *'  It  has  been  said  too 
that  Michael  Dra3rton  was  the  Author." 

*  Hazlitt,  Lectures  on  Literature  of  Age  of  Elizabeth  (Bohn's  ed.), 
p.  169.  •   Vid€  supra,  p.  331.  •  See  Fleay,  «.*.,  ii.  333-4. 

^  Sir  H.  Herbert's  Office  Book,  quoted  in  Collier,  Annals  of  the  Stage, 
1831,  i.  437,  note. 

•  Fleay,  «.*.,  ii.,  149,  states  that  The  Twins,  by  R.  Niccols  (entered 
Stat.  Reg,  15  Feb.  161 2)  was  the  play  acted  at  Court.  Rider's  play 
(id. ,  170)  was  probably  a  revival. 


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44a    PRODUCTION  OF   "THE  TEMPEST" 

known  about  the  author  or  his  play,  except  that  he 
called  himself  a  Master  of  Arts»  and  that  Langbaine 
judged  from  the  style  that  the  play  was  an  old  one.^ 

Shakespeare  and  Fletcher  divide  the  honours  of  the 
list  Jonson's  name  only  appeared  when  the  King 
gave  a  supplemental  "command."  Shakespeare  was 
still  regarded  as  supreme;  Fletcher  was  almost  too 
witty,  and  he  offended  against  "the  decorum  of  the 
stage."  But  his  raillery  was  "so  dressed/'  says 
Langbaine,  that  it  rather  pleased  than  disgusted  ;*  and 
the  list  of  plays,  if  closely  scrutinised,  seems  to  show  a 
preference  for  comedy  in  a  court  costume. 

CcBsat^s  Tragedy  we  take  as  being  Shakespeare's 
JtUius  CiBsarf  sometimes  called  "Julius  Caesar  his 
tragedy,"  or  simply  "Caesar,"  as  in  the  encomium 
of  Leonard  Digges: 

*'  So  have  I  seene,  when  Cesar  would  appeare. 
And  on  the  stage  at  halfe-sword  parley  were, 
Brutus  and  Cassius,  how  the  audience 
Were  ravish'd !  with  what  wonder  they  went  thence."' 

Malone  and  G.  Chalmers  took  their  information  from 
Vertue,  through  a  transcript  made  by  Oidys:  "It 
appears  from  the  papers  of  the  late  Mr.  George  Vertue, 
that  a  Play  called  Cassar's  Tragedy  was  acted  at  court 
before  the  loth  of  April,  in  the  year  1613.  This  was 
probably  Shakespeare's  Julius  Caesar,  it  being  much 
the  fashion  at  that  time  to  alter  the  titles  of  his  Plays."* 
There  were,  of  course,  several  pieces  on  the  same  sub- 

^  Langbaine,  «.s.,  p.  427 :  '*  Of  which  University  or  CoUed^fe,  is  to  me 
unknown.  .  .  .  This  Play  is  not  contemptible,  either  as  to  the  Language, 
Oeconomy  of  it,  tho'  I  judge  it  older  far  than  the  Date  of  it  imports." 
Oldys  altered  Langbaine*s  ascription  of  Rider's  date  from  Charles  the 
Second's  reign  to  *' James  the  First,"  confusing  Rider  and  Niccols. 

'  Langbaine,  «.f.,  p.  204.  See  Dryden,  Essay  an  Dramatic  Poetry  of 
the  Last  Age^  in  Worksy  ed.  Scott  and  Saintsbury,  iv.  229. 

'  Verses  prefixed  to  Shakespeare's  poems,  1640.  Printed  in  Halliwell- 
Phillipps,  Outlines^  \\   89 

^  Malone's  Shakespeare,  ed.  Bosweii,  ii.  450-1. 


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"CiESAR'S  TRAGEDY,"  ETC.  443 

ject;  but  none  of  them  were  likely  to  have  been  selected 
for  the  occasion.  The  Julius  Ccesar  of  W.  Alexander 
(afterwards  Earl  of  ^^Sterline")  was  one  of  his  four 
Monarchicke  Tragedies^  intended  only  for  reading  in 
the  library.  ^ 

We  learn  something  about  the  first  appearance  of 
the  Wintei^s  Tale  from  the  old  Office-book  quoted  by 
Malone  and  Collier.^  This  book  had  been  kept  by 
Sir  Henry  Herbert,  Master  of  the  Revels  to  Charles  I. 
Nothing  had  been  heard  of  it  for  nearly  a  century, 
when  it  was  found  by  a  curious  accident.  Horace 
Walpole  was  editing  the  Life  of  Lord  Herbert  of  Cher^ 
bury  from  a  stained  and  torn  MS.  at  Lymore,  and 
had  made  vain  inquiries  about  a  duplicate  once  belong- 
ing to  Lord  Herbert's  brother,  Sir  Henry  Herbert  of 
Ribbisford.  At  last,  in  the  year  1727,  this  duplicate 
was  sent  to  Lord  Powis  by  a  gentleman  who  had 
bought  the  estate  at  Ribbisford;  it  appeared  that  a 
great  oak  chest  had  been  allowed  to  go  with  the  house, 
and  in  this  chest  were  found  the  duplicate  *'  Life,"  and 
various  books  and  papers,  including  the  Office-book 
of  Sir  Henry  Herbert,  with  notes  from  August,  1623, 
onwards.  On  the  19th  of  August,  1623,  Sir  Henry 
made  a  note  of  a  visit  from  old  Mr.  Heminge:  ^'For 
the  king's  players.  An  olde  playe  called  Winter's 
Tale,  formerly  allowed  of  by  Sir  George  Bucke,  and 
likewise  by  mee  on  Mr.  Hemmings  his  worde  that  there 
was  nothing  profane  added  or  reformed,  thogh  the 
allowed  booke  was  missing ;  and  therefore  I  returned 
it  without  a  fee."*  The  play  seems  to  have  been 
popular,  but  in  1741  it  was  announced,  during  the 
Shakespearean  revival,  that  The  Merchant  of  Venice 
and  the   Winters  Tale  had  not  been  performed  for  a 

^  Printed  in  Scotland,  1604;  in  London,  1607.  See  A.  W.  Ward, 
op.  cit,  ii.  138,  140,  on  this  and  other  plays  bearing-  on  the  subject. 

•  See  Malone's  long  note  on  Sir  Henry  Herbert's  Office-Book,  op.  cit. , 
iti.  57-9.  •  /of.,  iii.  229. 


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444    PRODUCTION  OF  "THE  TEMPEST" 

century,  and  that  A  IPs  Well  that  Ends  Well  had  been 
last  acted  in  Shakespeare's  time.  With  respect  to  the 
boatswain's  curses  in  The  Tempest^  we  should  note  that 
the  Master  of  the  Revels  took  a  very  stringent  view 
of  **  profaneness."  On  January  gth,  1633,  we  have 
a  note  about  Davenant's  play  of  The  Wits.  Herbert 
had  crossed  out  "faith/*  "slight,"  and  similar  ex- 
pressions ;  but  the  King  took  him  to  the  window,  and 
showed  the  play  with  the  words  reinserted:  "The  kinge 
is  pleased  to  take  fatthy  death,  slight^  for  asseverations, 
and  no  oaths,  to  which  I  doe  humbly  submit  as  my 
master's  judgment ;  but  under  favour  conceive  them  to 
be  oaths,  and  enter  them  here,  to  declare  my  opinion 
and  submission.  The  10  of  January,  1633,  I  returned 
unto  Mr,  Davenant  his  playe-booke  of  The  WitSj 
corrected  by  the  king,"^ 

Mr.  Steevens  had  a  misleading  note  on  the  perform- 
ances in  the  Supplemental  List.  ^^  Much  ado  about 
Nothtng,^^  he  says,  "(as  I  understand  from  one  of  Mr. 
Vertue's  MSS.)  formerly  passed  under  the  title  of 
Benedick  and  Beatrix.  Heming  the  player  received,  on 
the  20th  of  May,  161 3,  the  sum  of  forty  pounds,  and 
twenty  pounds  more  as  his  Majesty's  gratuity,  for  ex- 
hibiting six  Plays  at  Hampton  Court,  among  which 
was  this  comedy."'  Steevens  had  taken  a  copy  of  a 
transcript  by  Oldys,  which  came  to  Sir  S.  Egerton 
Brydges,  and  was  bought  by  Dr.  Birch  at  the  Lee 
Priory  sale,  and  afterwards  deposited  in  the  British 
Museum.  Mr.  Cunningham's  statement  in  the  Shake- 
speare Society  Papers  seems  to  be  incorrect  He  said 
that  the  list  of  plays  as  there  printed  was  taken  from 
the  copy  by  Steevens,*  but  it  probably  came  from  the 
annotated  Langbaine,  described  in  Heber's  Catalogue 
as   "  Langbaine,   with  many  important  additions  by 

*  Id,y  iii.  235. 

'^  Steevens  in  Variorum  Shakespeare^  1803,  vi.  182. 

'  Cunning-ham,  u.s.y  p.  123. 


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''  MUCH  ADO  ABOUT  NOTHING,"  ETC.    445 

Oldys,   Steevens,   and   Reed,"  which   is  also  in  the 
British  Museum. 

Seeing  the  difference  in  the  titles,  one  might  rather 
expect  that  Benedict  and  Beatrix  was  not  the  same  as 
Mtich  Ado  about  Nothing.  It  may  well  have  been  an 
abridgement,  with  the  addition  of  characters  from  out- 
side. It  is  common  knowledge  that  this  practice  was 
adopted  when  required.  A  Midsummer  Nighfs  Dream 
is  an  example  in  point.  When  plays  were  forbidden,  it 
appeared  as  an  interlude  of  clowns  and  strolling  players. 
During  the  Commonwealth  it  was  acted  as  Bottom's 
Dream  at  the  fairs. ^  Benedict  and  Beatrix  may  have 
been  a  travesty  of  the  same  kind.  For  this  we  have 
the  testimony  of  Leonard  Digges  in  the  verses  pre- 
fixed to  Shakespeare's  Poems  in  1640.  It  is  clear  that 
Malvolio  had  been  brought  in  from  Twelfth  Night  to 
pad  out  the  witty  scenes  between  Signior  Benedick  and 

Lady  Beatrice : 

**  Let  but  Beatrice 
And  Benedicke  be  seen,  loe,  in  a  trice 
The  cockpit,  galleries,  boxes,  all  are  full 
To  hear  Malvoglio,  that  crosse-garter'd  gull."* 

The  Hotspur^  again,  as  acted  at  Hampton  Court,  may 
have  been  made  up  of  extracts  from  the  first  part 
of  King  Henry  IV.  A  separate  play  was  put  together 
for  Falstafif,  composed  of  scenes  from  both  parts  of 
King  Henry  IV.  and  The  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor. 
Something  may  have  been  borrowed  from  the  death- 
scene  in  Henry  Fl,  so  pitifully  described  by  Mistress 
Nell  Pistol,  better  known  as  Dame  Quickly  of  East- 
cheap  and  Staines,  or  the  '*  Quondam  Quickley."^ 
These  were  hints  useful  for  expansion  in  the  epilogue 
to  Henry  IV.  ^  where  a  promise  was  made  which  the 
Cobhams  would  never  allow  to  be  fulfilled:  "Our 
humble  author  will  continue  the  story,  with  Sir  John  in 

*  Vide  suprot  pp.  187-8,  and  Ward,  op,  cit,,  ii.  86. 

*  Vide  supra^  p.  442,  note  3.        '  Henry  V,,  ii.  3. 


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446    PRODUCTION  OF   *'THE  TEMPEST" 

it,  and  make  you  merry  with  fair  Katharine  of  France  : 
where,  for  any  thing  I  know,  FalstafF  shall  die  of  a 
sweat,  unless  already  a'  be  killed  with  your  hard 
opinions ;  for  Oldcastle  died  a  martyr,  and  this  is  not 
the  man."  Fuller's  words  would  be  appropriate  to  a 
made-up  ^'FalstaflF,"  but  he  can  hardly  be  suspected 
of  an  attack  upon  the  memory  of  Shakespeare:  ''Sir 
John  Palstaff  hath  relieved  the  memory  of  Sir  John 
Oldcastle,  and  of  late  is  substituted  bu£foon  in  his 
place;  but  it  matters  as  little  what  petulant  poets,  as 
what  malicious  papists  have  written  against  him."^ 
He  added  in  his  Worthies  of  England:  ''  Now  as  I  am 
glad  that  Sir  John  Oldcastle  is  put  out,  so  I  am  sorry 
that  Sir  John  Fastolfe  is  put  in,  to  relieve  his  memory 
in  this  base  service,  to  be  the  anvil  for  every  dull  wit  to 
strike  on."*  It  appears  from  an  entry  in  Sir  Henry 
Herbert's  note-book  that  Sir  John  Falstaff  was  in  two 
parts,  the  first  part  having  been  acted  on  New  Year's 
Eve,  1624-S,  by  the  King's  Company  in  the  Cockpit  at 
Whitehall.*  We  learn  also  from  the  verses  by  Digges 
that  the  ''wild  Prince"  and  Poins  were  both  in  the 
play.  He  was  noticing  the  dislike  of  the  public  for 
tedious  "  Catiline  "  and  irksome  "  Seganus"  : 

< '  And  though  the  Fox  and  subtill  Alchimist, 
Long  intermitted,  could  not  quite  be  mist, 
Though  these  have  sham'd  all  the  ancients,  and  might  raise 
Their  authour's  merit  with  a  crowne  of  bayes, 
Yet  these  sometimes,  even  at  a  friends  desire 
Acted,  have  scarce  defrai'd  the  sea  coale  fire 
And  doore-keepers  :  when,  let  but  FalstafFe  come, 
Hall,  Poines,  the  rest,  you  scarce  shall  have  a  roome. 
All  is  so  pester'd." 

Steevens  gave  the  title  of  "the  Vertue  MSS."  to  the 
leaf  from  Lord  Stanhope's  book.    But  the  name  properly 

^  Fuller,  Church  History  of  Britain  (ed  Nichols,  1868),  tiL  568. 
>  Fuller,    Worthies  of  England  (ed.    Nuttall,    1840),    ii.    455.      Svb 
Worthies  of  Norfolk ;  Soldiers. 
'  Malone,  «^£.,  iii.  238. 


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THE  VERTUE   MSS.  447 

belonged  to  the  whole  collection  of  miscellaneous  papers 
got  together  by  George  Vertue,  the  celebrated  engraver. 
He  began  to  gather  materials  for  a  History  of  Art  as  early 
as  the  year  1713.  He  paid  great  attention  to  the  archi- 
tecture of  London,  and  his  library  included  the  plans 
used  in  Rocque's  Survey^  and  the  note-books  of  Nicholas 
Stone,  the  master-mason,  who  put  up  Spenser's  monu- 
ment in  the  Abbey^  and  built  the  existing  banqueting- 
house  at  Whitehall.  In  the  Memoir  of  W.  Oldys^  by 
Mr.  Yeowell,  we  find  an  extract  from  the  antiquary's 
note-book,  dated  the  27th  of  September,  1749:  ''Mr. 
Vertue  sent  me  a  transcript  of  King  Charles  his  Patent 
to  Ben  Jonson  for  £100  per  annum.  Also  extracts  from 
the  accounts  of  Lord  Stanhope,  Treasurer  of  the  Cham- 
ber to  King  James,  from  the  Year  1613  to  1616,  relating 
to  the  payment  of  the  Players  for  acting  of  Plays  in  and 
between  those  Years  at  Court. "^  Mr.  G.  Chalmers  used 
the  term  '*  Vertue  MSS."  in  the  same  careless  way  when 
he  wrote  about  a  point  in  his  Supplemental  Apology: 
''There  isa  note  subjoined  to  the  Manuscripts  of  Vertue, 
which  about  thirty  ytors  ago  were  lent  to  Mr.  Steevens 
by  Mr.  Garrick."  The  great  actor  may  have  got  much 
information  from  Steevens  when  they  were  arranging 
the  Stratford  Jubilee  of  1769 ;  but  it  is  well  known  that 
the  engraver's  general  collection  was  purchased  en  bloc 
by  Horace  Walpole  for  the  library  at  Strawberry  Hill. 
Vertue's  notes  on  the  history  of  Art  became,  in  fact, 
the  foundation  of  Wal pole's  Anecdotes  of  Painting  in 
England.  To  show  how  difficult  it  would  be  to  trace 
the  paper  copied  for  Oldys  and  Garrick,  we  may  refer 
to  a  correspondence  mentioned  in  Prior's  Life  of  Malone. 
The  critic  first  inquired,  without  success,  about  a  docu- 
ment connected  with  Shakespeare,  supposed  to  be  with 
Mrs.  Eva  Garrick  at  Hampton  ;  and  he  then  inquired 
about  the  history  of  a  painting  by  Carlo  Maratti. 
Walpole  replied  that  he  thought  it  came  from  some 

'  A  Literary  Antiquary  :  Memoir  of  William  OldySy  1862,  p.  32. 


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448    PRODUCTION  OF   "THE  TEMPEST" 

note  by  Vertue,  but  could  not  be  sure :  "All  Vertue's 
memorandums  were  indigested,  and  written  down  suc- 
cessively as  he  made  them  in  forty  volumes,  often  on 
loose  scraps  of  paper,  so  it  is  next  to  impossible  to  find 
the  note. "» 

The  paper  sent  by  Vertue  to  W.  Oldys  was  doubtless 
thrown  into  the  bag  of  clippings  which  he  called  his 
"  Shakespeare  Budget,"  which  was  lost  in  the  confusion 
of  his  sale ;  but  he  transcribed  the  contents  into  his 
Second  Annotated  Langbame^  in  the  form  of  marginal 
notes ;  and  this  copy  was  purchased  by  Dr.  Birch,  and 
was  bequeathed  by  him  to  the  British  Museum.  The 
notes  in  this  volume  were  highly  esteemed  for  their 
minute  learning,  and  were  several  times  copied.  Bishop 
Percy,  for  instance,  borrowed  the  book  from  Dr.  Birch, 
and  wrote  out  the  "marginalia*'  in  four  interleaved  vol* 
umes;  "  His  Lordship,"  said  Mr.  Joseph  Haslewood, 
"  was  so  kind  as  to  favour  me  with  the  loan  of  this  book, 
with  a  generous  permission  to  make  what  use  of  it  I 
might  think  proper,  and  when  he  went  to  Ireland  he 
left  it  with  Mr.  Nichols  for  the  benefit  of  the  new  edition 
of  the  Tatler,  Spectator,  and  Guardian."^  Malone's 
copy  seems  to  have  been  taken  from  these  interleaved 
volumes,  though  he  had  access  to  all  the  papers  that 
were  inspected  by  Bishop  Percy ;  it  is  now  among  the 
"  Malone  MSS.  "  at  the  Bodleian  Library. 

The  original  leaves  from  the  Treasurer's  Office-book 
were  saved  from  destruction  by  Samuel  Pepys,  who  not 
only  loved  his  library,  but  treasured  everything  relating 
to  stage-plays,  and  to  The  Tempest  above  all  other 
plays.  He  studied  to  the  best  of  his  power  the  con- 
ditions of  London  life  in  the  past,  with  special  reference 
to  the  development  of  the  English  Drama.    So  great 

*  Prior,  Life  of  MaUme^  i860,  pp.  126-7. 

*  Haslewood's  Zangbain^ :  MS.  notes  by  Joseph  Haslewood,  vol  u 
extra  leaf  9.  He  tells  us  that  Bishop  Percy's  interleaved  copy  "very 
narrowly  escaped  the  flames,  and  was  much  injured  by  the  water  thrown 
in  to  quench  the  fire  at  Northumberland  House." 


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PEPYS  AND   LORD  STANHOPE'S  MS.    449 

were  his  accumulations  of  plays  and  ballads  that  some 
called  him  the  Father  of  Black-letter  Collectors.  Dr. 
Dibdin,  the  arbiter  of  such  matters,  would  not  class 
him  with  **the  Black-letter  Dogs";  but  he  said  that 
Mr.  Secretary  Pepys  was  a  Bibliomaniac  **of  the  very 
first  order  and  celebrity."  He  kept  his  books  and 
papers  till  his  death  in  that  *^  very  noble  house  and 
sweet  place  "  at  Clapham,  which  John  Evelyn  so  affec- 
tionately described.^  The  library  was  left  en  bloc  to 
Magdalene  College,  Cambridge,  in  the  hope  of  keep- 
ing it  entire ;  and  there,  to  borrow  a  phrase  from 
Oldys,  among  the  folios  peeped  out  his  black-letter 
ballads,  ''and  penny  merriments,  penny  witticisms, 
penny  compliments,  and  penny  godlinesses."  This 
was  the  critical  moment  for  our  ^^  Tempest  manu- 
script"; for,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  list  of  plays 
performed  at  Whitehall  did  not  go  to  Cambridge  with 
the  rest.  Dr.  Richard  Rawlinson,  ''a  Bishop  among 
the  Nonjurors,"  collected  everything  in  the  shape  of 
a  book  or  the  semblance  of  a  manuscript.  He  laid 
more  than  thirty  great  libraries  under  contribution,  and 
was  not  above  purchasing  ''  ships'  logs  and  the  pickings 
of  chandlers'  and  grocers'  shops."  In  1741,  he  wrote : 
"  My  agent  met  with  some  papers  of  Archbishop  Wake 
at  a  Chandler's  shop ;  this  is  unpardonable  in  his 
executors,  as  all  his  MSS.  were  left  to  Christ  Church  : 
but  quaere  whether  these  did  not  fall  into  some  servant's 
hands,  who  was  ordered  to  burn  them  ;  and  Mr.  Martin 
Follets  ought  to  have  seen  this  done."  In  much  the 
same  way  he  acquired  the  Miscellaneous  Papers  of 
Samuel  Pepys,  in  twenty-five  volumes,  which  in- 
cluded the  list  of  plays  in  question,  as  well  as  other 
**  Treasurer's  Accounts."  All  these  were  bequeathed 
by  him  to  the  Bodleian  Library,  where  they  now  form 
part  of  the  **  Rawlinson  MSS." 

*  Eveljm,  Diary y  May  26,  1703 ;  also  Sept  23,  1700  (ecL  Bray,  1879, 
iii.  165,  154). 
2  G 


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IV.    ON    A    POSSIBLE    PERFORMANCE 
AT  THE    BLACKFRIARS,    C.    1606. 

THE     BLACKFRIARS    THEATRE    AND 
THE  COMPANIES  OF  BOY  ACTORS 


y^HE  TEMPEST,  as  we  learn  from  Dryden,i  was 
brought  out  with  success  at  the  private  theatre  in 
Blackfriars.  There  was  too  much  music  in  the  piece  to 
make  it  suitable  for  the  Globe.  It  was  a  work  of  such 
airy  and  delicate  fancy  as  to  require  an  educated  audi- 
ence ;  and  at  the  private  houses  the  prices  were  kept 
high,  in  order ^o  drive  away  the  Copper  Captains  and 
Nuns  of  Alsatia,  the  sailors,  the  flat-capped  prentices, 
and  '^  youths  that  thunder  at  a  playhouse  and  fight  for 
bitten  apples."*  X  fantasia  like  l%e  Tempest  "was  better 
suited  to  boys  than  to  grown-up  actors ;  and  to  young 
boys,  whose  voices  had  not  broken,  such  as  the  choris- 
ters of  St.  Paul's,  or  the  children  of  the  Chapel-Royal 
at  Whitehall. 

>  Preface  to  The  Tempest;  or^  the  Enchanted  Island  (1670),  in  Works^ 
ed.  Scott  and  Saintsbury,  iii.  106.  HaUiwell-Phillipps,  Outlines,  ti.  J09, 
says :  ''  It  is  not  at  all  improbable  that  the  conspicuous  position  assigned 
to  this  comedy  in  the  first  folio  is  a  testimony  to  its  popularity." 

a  King  Henry  VUL,  v.  4,  63-4. 


450 

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THE   LIBERTY  OF  BLACKFRIARS     451 


BLACKFRIARS— HISTORY  OF  THE  THEATRE 

There  were  three  of  these  private  theatres  in 
London ;  the  Whitefriars  house,  constructed  in  the 
hall  of  the  Carmelites,  near  the  Temple ;  ^  the  Phoenix, 
or  Cockpit,  in  Drury  Lane,  built  on  the  site  of  a  dis- 
used cockpit,  and  bearing  the  Phoenix  on  its  sign ;  * 
and  the  house  built  by  James  Burbage  in  the  precinct 
of  Blackfriars.  This  third  house  we  are  now  about  to 
describe. 

The  liberty  of  Blackfriars  was  a  district  outside  the 
Lord  Mayor's  jurisdiction,  though  set  within  the  walls 
of  the  city.  Before  the  suppression  of  the  monasteries 
it  belonged  to  the  Dominican  order  of  friars ;  and  the 
powers  given  by  charter  to  the  prior  were  for  a  long 
time  regarded  as  having  passed  to  his  lay  successors.' 
The  ancient  boundaries  are  well  known,  though  the 
walls  and  gateways  are  gone,  and  the  lines  of  division 
have  been  altered  by  the  building  of  the  Blackfriars 
and  Ludgate  Hill  railway  stations  and  the  opening  of 
Queen  Victoria  Street  above  the  Embankment.  There 
were  once  four  great  gates :  one  was  in  Carter  Lane, 
nearly  opposite  to  Creed  Lane ;  another  opened  into 
the  old  Pilgrims'  Way,  leading  through  Pilgrim  Street 
and  the  Broadway  into  Water  Lane  by  the  city  wall, 
and  as  far  as  the  prior's  water-gate.   The  fourth  gate- 

'  See  notice  in  Collier,  Annals  of  the  stage ^  ist  ed.,  1831,  iii.  289-95. 
In  1629  a  new  theatre  in  Salisbury  Court  took  the  place  of  the  old 
Whitefriars  theatre,  "on  or  near  the  site  of  the  old  edifice." 

*  Collier,  id,,  328-32.  This  theatre  does  not  seem  to  have  existed  until 
Shakespeare  had  lefl  London. 

'  Dug'dale,  Monasticon,  ed.  Caley,  Ellis,  and  Bandinel,  1830,  vi.  1487, 
quoting*  from  Stevens :  **  Neither  the  Mayor  nor  the  SherifiBs,  nor  any 
other  Officers  of  the  City  of  London,  had  the  least  jurisdiction  or  authority 
therein.  All  which  liberties  the  inhabitants  preserved  some  time  after 
the  suppression  of  the  Monastery." 


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452    PRODUCTION  OF   *'THE  TEMPEST" 

way  opened  on  the  timber  bridge  leading  through 
Union  Street  towards  Bridewell,  across  that  ancient 
'*  river  of  wells,"  better  known  afterwards  as  the  filthy 
ditch  of  the  Fleet,* 

If  we  could  carry  back  our  mental  vision  to  the  days 
of  Henry  VIIL,  we  might  call  up  the  picture  of  the 
precinct  in  its  time  of  magnificence.  On  the  place 
now  occupied  by  the  Times  ofiice  and  Printing-house 
Square  stood  the  conventual  church,  richly  furnished 
with  hangings  and  ornaments,  and  containing,  on  the 
side  near  Bridewell,  a  great  hall  called  the  parliament- 
chamber.  Here  the  marriage  of  Queen  Katharine  was 
annulled ;  ^  and,  sitting  in  this  chamber,  the  Parlia- 
ment declared  the  ruin  of  Wolsey.  The  cloisters 
stood  behind  the  church,  towards  Ludgate,  their  old 
site  being  indicated  by  the  name  of  Cloister  Court. 
The  priory  buildings  were  next  to  the  cloisters ;  their 
site  was  taken  at  one  time  for  the  King's  printing- 
house,  and  is  now  covered  by  the  Times  printing  office. 
Just  within  the  precinct  and  at  the  back  of  Carter 
Lane  was  the  little  church  of  St.  Anne,  Blackfriars, 
where  two  open  spaces  still  remain  to  show  the  site  of 
the  church  and  churchyard  in  the  lane  now  called 
Church  Entry.  On  the  city  side  the  friars*  quarters 
were  bounded  by  St.  Andrew's  Hill,  leading  from 
Carter  Lane  to  Puddle  Dock.  At  the  top  of  the  hill 
was  the  King's  wardrobe,  a  fine  building,  used  as  a 
museum  of  royal  costumes,  and  as  a  place  of  custody 
for  confidential  documents  relating  to  the  estates  of  the 
Crown  ;  lower  down  the  church  of  St.  Andrew  met  the 
eastern  limit  of  the  precinct. 

King  Henry  lodged,  on  his  visits  to  the  prior,  in  a 
fine  tower  built  near  the  water-gate ;  and  on  one  great 
occasion,  when  Charles  V.  visited  London,  a  flying 

^  See  topography  in  Stow,  Survey  of  London,  ed.  Strype,  1720,  bk.  iii. 

pp.  193-4. 

*  The  stage  directions  in  J^ing^  Henry  VIII. ,  ii.  4,  give  some  sugges- 
tion of  the  historical  surroundings  of  the  scene. 


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THE   PRIORY  IN  BLACKFRIARS       453 

bridge  was  set  up  from  the  Emperor's  lodging  in  the 
Blackfriars  to  the  new  palace  at  Bridewell.^  The 
precinct  was  then  a  busy  place,  what  with  the  friars 
and  librarianSi  the  prior's  justices  and  their  retinue, 
the  pilgrims  trooping  from  the  **  Bell  "  in  Carter  Lane 
to  Chaucer's  hostelry  in  Southwark  **with  full  devout 
corage."  A  few  years  passed  ;  the  priory  was  sup- 
pressed, and  the  precinct  became  as  bare  as  a  wilder- 
ness.  Part  of  the  house  itself  was  turned  into  the  Pipe 
office,  where  they  kept  the  great  rolls  of  the  Pipe, 
huge  sheepskins  looking  like  drain-pipes  of  the  largest 
size.  Several  houses  and  gardens  were  given  or  sold 
to  courtiers,  as  Sir  Thomas  Cheyney,  a  mighty  hunter 
of  abbey-lands  ;  Mary  Lady  Kingston,  the  dowager, 
and  Sir  Francis  Bryan.*  In  the  fourth  year  of  Edward 
VL,  the  site  of  the  monastery,  including  the  great 
church  and  what  remained  of  the  other  buildings,  was 
granted  to  Sir  Thomas  Cawarden,  then  Master  of  the 
Revels.  He  destroyed  the  church,  and  had  the  assur- 
ance to  pull  down  also  St.  Anne's  parish  church,  on 
the  excuse  that  it  was  part  of  the  monastery.  The 
priory  buildings  were  divided  into  chambers,  flats,  and 
tenements.  On  Queen  Mary's  accession,  Cawarden 
was  ordered  to  find  a  church  for  the  parishioners.  He 
allowed  them  the  use  of  a  lodging  on  a  first  floor,  with 
an  outside  flight  of  steps ;  but  the  stairs  and  lodging- 
room  having  fallen  down  in  1597,  a  collection  was 
made,  and  the  church  was  rebuilt  with  an  enlargement, 
and  was  dedicated  in  November  of  that  year.' 

On  February  4th,  1596,  James  Burbage,  actor  and 
builder,  bought  a  house  formerly  included  in  the  priory 
from  Sir  William  More,  Cawarden's  surviving  trustee. 
His  object  was  to  set  up  a  private  theatre,  for  the 
amusement  of  a  select  audience  of  visitors  and  licensees, 
and  certainly  not  open  to  any  customer  who  might 

^  Stow,  u,s,t  bk.  ill.  p.  264.  *  Dug-dale,  u,s. 

*  Stow,  «•£„  bk.  iii.  p.  i8q. 

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454    PRODUCTION  OF   "THE  TEMPEST '• 

come  with  his  penny  in  hand.  The  new  population 
of  the  precinct  belonged  to  a  quiet  race;  they  were 
chiefly  Puritans,  Calvinists,  or  Huguenots,  with  shops 
for  embroidery,  lawns,  and  cambrics,  **  confections," 
and  dressmaking.  They  were  celebrated  for  fans  and 
feather-work  ;  and  the  most  popular  sign  in  the  liberty 
was  the  Fool  laughing  at  a  Feather.  Ben  Jonson  gibes 
at  the  poor,  hard-working  Puritans  in  his  confutation 
of  Zeal-of-the-land  Busy  by  "puppet  Dionysius." 
"Yea  1  what  say  you  to  your  tire-women  then?  .  .  . 
Or  feather-makers  in  the  Friars,  that  are  of  your  faction 
of  faith?  are  not  they,  with  their  perukes,  and  their 
puffs,  their  fans,  and  their  huffs,  as  much  pages  of 
Pride,  and  waiters  upon  Vanity?  What  say  you,  what 
say  you,  what  say  you?"  "I  will  not  answer  for 
them,"  replies  Zeal-of-the-land,  The  puppet  retorts, 
"  Because  you  cannot,  because  you  cannot.  Is  a 
bugle-maker  a  lawful  calling?  or  the  confect-makers? 
such  as  you  have  there ;  or  your  French  fashioner?  You 
would  have  all  the  sin  within  yourselves,  would  you  not, 
would  you  not?"^  When  a  fine  periwig  was  required, 
people  went  to  the  milliners  in  the  Strand  ;  but  Black- 
friars  was  the  place  for  a  hand-glass,  an  ornamental 
comb,  smoky  lawn,  yellow  starch,  or  crape  from  Cyprus.* 
The  shopkeepers  of  Blackfriars   got   up  a  strong 

^  Bartholomew  Fair,  act  v.  sc.  3.  Cf.  The  Alchemist,  \,  i,  where  Dol. 
Common  abuses  Face  as  an  *'  apocryphal  captain,  Whom  not  a  Puritan 
in  Blackfriars  will  trust  So  much  as  for  a  feather."  Webster's  induction 
to  The  Malamtent  contains  the  words,  ''  This  play  hath  beaten  all  young 
gallants  out  of  the  feathers.  Black-friars  hath  almost  spoiled  Black- 
friars for  feathers."  For  other  references,  see  Nares*  Glossary,  ed. 
Halliwell-Phillipps  and  Wright,  s,v.  "Black-friars.*'  Randolph's  The 
Muses  Looking'Glass  (printed  1638)  has  two  characters.  Bird  the  feather- 
man,  and  Mrs.  Flowerdew,  a  haberdasher  of  smallwares,  described  as 
"two  of  the  sanctify'd  fraternity  of  Black-friars."  Bird  (i.  i)  says: 
"  We  dwell  by  Black-friars  college,  where  I  wonder  How  that  profane 
nest  of  pernicious  birds  Dare  roost  themselves  there  in  the  midst  of  us, 
So  many  good  and  well-disposed  persons.     O  impudence  ! " 

3  It  was  a  common  saying  that  Blackfriars  was  right  for  a  mouse- 
skin  eyebrow,  but  the  Strand  for  a  ringlet  or  a  periwig.     The  word 


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BURBAGE'S  PURCHASE  455 

petition  to  the  Privy  Council  in  November,  1596,  when 
the  new  house  was  nearly  completed.^  They  urged  the 
proximity  of  the  theatre  to  the  houses  of  the  nobility 
and  gentry ;  it  was  close  to  Lord  Hunsdon's  mansion, 
and  touched  on  a  house  under  lease  to  Lord  Cobham.^ 
The  crowds  coming  to  the  plays  might  spread  disease 
through  the  district,  already  too  tightly  packed,  especi- 
ally if  the  pestilence  should  return.*  **  And  besides," 
they  said,  **.  .  .  the  same  playhouse  is  so  neere  the 
Church  that  the  noyse  of  the  drummes  and  trumpetts 
will  greatly  disturbe  and  hinder  both  the  ministers  and 
parishioners  in  tyme  of  devine  service  and  sermons." 
In  this  paragraph  they  are  shown  by  the  date  to  be 
referring  to  Cawarden's  temporary  church,  up  one  pair 
of  stairs ;  but  the  theatre  was  in  fact  at  the  lower  end  of 
a  large  yard,  extending  as  far  as  the  churchyard  and 
the  site  of  the  church,  as  soon  afterwards  restored. 

The  paper  was  signed  by  some  of  the  great  people 
who  owned  houses  in  the  precinct.   The  list  was  headed 

milliner  meant  a  dealer  in  articles  from  Milan ;  and,  while  the  Italian 
mode  lasted,  the  Strand  shops  were  full  of  doublets  worked  with 
g-old  thread,  g^lt-leather  gloves  called  "Milan  skins,"  and  Milan  silk 
stockings,  "twice  as  strong  as  ours,"  said  an  English  traveller,  "and 
very  massive."  Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  Valentinian^  ii.  2,  couple 
"gilded  doublets  And  Milan  skins."  The  commodities  of  Blackfriars 
were  also  to  be  found  in  that  part  of  the  Exchange  known  as  the  Pawn, 
"  which  was  richly  furnished  with  all  sorts  of  the  finest  wares  in  the 
city,"  on  Queen  Elizabeth's  memorable  visit,  Jan.  23,  1570  (Stow,  Suruej^t 
Comhill  Ward).  See  Sylvester's  lines  on  London,  inserted  in  his  translation 
of  Du  Bartas  (week  ii.,  day  2,  part  3) :  "  For  costly  Toys,  silk  Stockings, 
Cambrick,  Lawn,  Here's  choice-full  Plenty  in  the  curious  pawn." 

^  The  petition  is  printed  (from  a  transcript  c,  1631),  in  HaUiwell- 
Phillipps,  u,s,,u  304. 

*  This  appears  from  the  deed  of  feoffment,  printed  ibid, ,  299-304 : 
"  All  that  little  yard  or  petce  of  void  grounde  .  .  .  enclosed  with  the 
same  bricke  wall  and  with  a  pale,  next  adjoyneinge  to  the  house  of  the 
said  Sir  William  More,  nowe  in  thoccupacyon  of  the  right  honorable 
the  Lord  Cobham." 

'  "  And  allso  to  the  greate  pestring  and  filling  up  of  the  same  precinct, 
yf  it  should  please  God  to  send  any  visitation  of  sicknesse  as  heretofore 
hath  been,  for  that  the  same  precinct  is  allready  growne  very 
populous." 


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456    PRODUCTION  OF   "THE  TEMPEST" 

by  Elizabeth,  dowager  Lady  Russell,  and  Sir  George 
Carey,  eldest  son  of  Lord  Hunsdon,  the  chamberlain 
of  the  Household.  The  Hunsdon  family  had  an  ancient 
mansion  in  the  parish,  and  usually  were  buried  at 
St.  Anne's^  Within  a  few  weeks  Lord  Hunsdon  died,^ 
and  was  succeeded  by  his  son  George,  in  his  office  as 
well  as  his  estates  and  dignities;  but  by  that  time  it 
was  too  late  to  object.  Among  the  other  names  we 
notice  William  de  Lavine,*  Robert  Baheire,  John  Le 
Mere,  and  Ascanio  de  Renialmire,  all  apparently,  by 
their  names,  foreign  Protestant  refugees,  and  John 
'^Robbinson,"  who  afterwards  became  Shakespeare's 
tenant  of  the  dwelling-house  occupied  by  William 
Ireland,  right  opposite  to  the  King's  wardrobe  on  St. 
Andrew's  Hill,  and  built  in  part  upon  a  great  gateway 
at  the  entrance  to  Ireland  Yard. 

The  dispute  went  on  for  about  half  a  century,  perhaps 
till  the  theatre  was  pulled  down.  The  Lord  Mayor 
and  the  parishioners  made  repeated  complaints  about 
the  private  house;  the  Lords  of  the  Council  as  repeatedly 
evaded  the  question  by  making  regulations  only  for 
the  public  theatres.  Queen  Anne's  juvenile  company 
played  at  Blackfriars  for  some  years ;  Queen  Henrietta 
loved  everything  that  savoured  of  the  stage.  Then 
came  an  ordinance  of  1642,  prohibiting  the  acting- of 
plays ; '  and,  five  years  later,  another  which  provided 
for  the  whipping  of  contumacious  players,  and  the 
breaking-up  of  the  platforms,  boxes,  and  galleries,  and 
whirled  away  all  the  rags  and  properties  into  the  limbo 
of  vanity.* 

^  He  was  buried,  not  in  St.  Anne's,  Blackfriars,  but  in  Westminster 
Abbey.  His  immense  monument,  in  St.  John  Baptist's  Chapel,  north  of 
the  apse,  was  erected  by  his  son.  Sir  George  Carey  signs  the  petition 
"G.  Hunsdon." 

'  Also  named  in  the  deed  of  feoffment,  m.s.,  as  **  William  de  Lawne, 
Doctor  of  Physick." 

*  Sept  2,  1642,  printed  in  Collier,  op.  cit,  ii.  105. 

^  Feb.  II,  1647-8,  printed  ibid.t  pp.  114-17,  note,  from  text  in  Scobell's 
Collection  of  Acts  and  Ordinances,     For  the  history  of  the  ordinance  in 


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PETITIONS  AGAINST  THE  THEATRE    457 

One  of  the  petitions,  on  which  the  Lord  Mayor 
founded  an  order — an  order  disregarded,  as  usual — has 
still  some  interest,  as  showing  the  dislike  of  the  shop- 
keepers to  carriages.  In  1631,  the  churchwardens  and 
parishioners  asked  Bishop  Laud  to  remove  the  players 
from  Blackfriars ;  but  his  endorsement,  '^  to  the  council 
Table,"  indicates  that  the  matter  was  shelved  or  laid  by. 
By  reason  of  the  great  resort  of  coaches,  it  was  urged, 
the  shopkeepers'  wares  were  broken  and  beaten  off 
their  stalls.  This  crowd  of  coaches  was  so  thick  that 
the  inhabitants  could  not  fetch  in  afternoon  beer,  or 
coals,  or  get  water  to  put  out  a  fire :  persons  of  quality, 
living  in  Blackfriars,  could  not  get  out  of  their  houses  : 
ordinary  folk  were  much  disturbed  at  christenings  and 
burials,  and  could  not  take  their  walks  to  Ludgate  or 
down  to  the  river. ^ 


II 

CONSTRUCTION  OP  THE  THEATRE— ITS  PROBABLE  APPEARANCE 
AND  SCENIC  ARRANGEMENTS 

The  conveyance  to  Burbage,  printed  by  Halliwell- 
Phillipps,^  helps  us  to  realise  the  look  of  the  old  house 
in  the  priory,  converted  by  him  into  what  is  now  called 
a  ''bijou"  theatre.     It  must  have  been  like  a  Dutch 

question,  see  Md.,  pp.  xxo-19;  A.  W.  Ward,  Engr,  Dfum.  Litt  til  278-9. 
See  also  Collier,  M.f.,  iii.  273-8,  on  the  Blackfriars  Theatre.  He  quotes 
Sir  Aston  Cokain's  *'  Praeludium "  to  Richard  Brome's  plays,  1653 : 
'*  Black,  and  Whitefriars  too,  shall  flourish  again.  Though  there  have 
been  none  since  Queen  Mary's  reign."  **  But,"  he  adds,  '*  on  the  revival 
of  the  drama,  we  never  hear  of  its  employment,  and  as  it  was  then  an 
old  building,  it  was  probably  pulled  down."  Shirley,  in  a  prologue 
printed  also  in  1653,  among  his  Six  Newe  PlaytSy  and  quoted  by  Nares, 
«.«.,  s,v.  Black-friars,  writes:  "But  you  that  can  contract  yourselves, 
and  sit  As  you  were  now  in  the  Black-Fryers  pit." 

^  The  petitions  are  all  abstracted  in  the  Calendar  of  State  Papers 
(Domestic),  ed.  Bruce,  1631-3,  pp.  219-21  (also  see  1633-4,  PP<  266-90). 
The  petition  made  in  1631  (no  date)  was  renewed  in  1633,  "but  the 
petitioners  obtained  no  redress"  (Collier,  op,  cit,,  iii.  277).  The  petition 
was  debated  at  the  Council  Table,  Oct^Nov.,  1633. 

«  Vide  sup,,  p.  455,  note  i. 


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458    PRODUCTION  OF   **THE  TEMPEST" 

house,  of  an  oblong  shape,  three-storied,  with  a  high- 
pitched  roof  and  dormer  windows.  It  stood  near  Water 
Lane,  looking  into  it  from  the  west  side  of  the  north 
end :  one  of  the  yards  was  divided  from  the  street  only 
by  a  brick  wall.^  On  the  same  side  it  touched  the  Pipe 
office,  the  covered  passage  leading  to  the  main  entrance 
(afterwards  the  theatre  door),  and  a  winding  stone  stair- 
case open  to  the  air.  At  other  points  it  touched  several 
houses  looking  on  the  street — Sir  George  Carejr's  man- 
sion, Sir  William  More's  house  on  the  Cawarden 
estate,  and  another  which  we  have  mentioned  as  being 
under  lease  from  Sir  William  to  Lord  Cobham. 

The  house  having  been  divided  into  flats,  the  descrip- 
tion of  the  interior  was  somewhat  complicated.  The 
general  efiFect  was  as  follows,  if  we  omit  such  small 
matters  as  entries,  cellars,  and  coal-holes.  The  ground- 
floor  had  been  let  in  four  rooms  as  chambers,  a  little 
contracted  in  breadth  by  the  passage  along  the  wall  of 
the  Pipe  office.  The  first  floor  *  had  been  occupied  by 
one  Rocco  Bonnetto.  Its  dimensions  were  only  52  x  37 
feet ;  and  from  this  we  may  calculate  the  size  of  the 
theatre.  The  second  floor  contained  seven  rooms, 
which,  in  the  days  of  the  friars,  had  been  all  in  one, 
and  two  more  rooms  beyond,  with  a  buttery,  certain 
garrets,  and  a  stone  staircase  leading  to  the  roof.  The 
"seaven  greate  upper  romes"  were  described  as  lately 
occupied  by  Dr.  William  **de  Lawne"  or  Lavine,  who 
afterwards  joined  in  the  petition  against  the  theatre. 

The  amount  of  alterations  required  appears  by  various 
scattered  descriptions  of  the  private  houses,  and  by  the 
contract,  preserved  at  Dulwich,  under  which  the  For- 
tune Theatre  was  built  in  1600.*    We  know  that  plays 

^  "  lyeinge  and  being  nexte  the  Queenes  highewaye  leadinge  unto  the 
r3rver  of  Thamis." 

^  In  the  language  of  the  deed,  **  the  Midle  Romes  or  Midle  Stories." 
'  Printed  in   Halliwell   Phillipps,   u.s,t  304-6.     Collier,   Annals,  ill 
304-6,  gives  a  good  abstract.      f'This  document,"    notes    Halliwell- 
Phillipps,  "  incidentally  reveals  to  some  extent  the  nature  of  the  con- 
struction of  the  Globe  Theatre." 


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CONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  THEATRE     459 

were  at  first  acted  in  the  coachyards  of  inns.  The 
Globe  and  the  Fortune  were  modified  imitations  of  the 
yards  at  the  Bell  or  the  Belle  Sauvage ;  and  the  Red 
Bull,  in  St.  John  Street,  was  nothing  more  than  an  inn- 
yard  converted  into  a  permanent  theatre.^  The  stage 
was  a  platform  in  the  open  air,  fenced  off  by  strong 
palings  from  the  ground  where  the  crowd  found  stand- 
ing-room. The  lower  boxes  replaced  the  rooms  looking 
out  into  the  yard :  the  scaffolding  was  copied  from  the 
gallery  leading  to  the  bedrooms ;  but  in  a  theatre  it  was 
necessary  to  cut  off  portions  for  *'gentlemen*s  rooms" 
and  ** twopenny  rooms"  in  double  tiers.  Part  of  the 
ground  tier  was  taken  for  a  stage-box,  which  was  re- 
placed at  some  theatres,  after  a  time,  by  private  rooms 
at  the  back  of  the  stage,  close  to  the  music  gallery. 

The  contracts  for  building  the  Globe  and  the  Fortune 
provided  that  the  house  should  be  in  a  timber  frame, 
three  stories  high,  with  divisions  for  the  boxes,  **a 
stadge  and  tyreing-howse  .  .  .  with  a  shadowe  or  cover 
over  the  said  stadge."  The  stage  was  to  be  forty- 
three  feet  wide,  ^^  and  in  breadth  to  extend  to  the  middle 
of  the  yarde,"  or  the  pit,  as  it  afterwards  was  called. 
The  platform  and  the  ground-tier  boxes  were  to  be 
paled  in  with  ''good  stronge  and  sufficyent  newe  oken 
4x)urdes,"  and  **  fenced  with  stronge  yron  pykes." 

We  find  no  mention  of  a  balcony  in  the  contract  «for 
building  the  Fortune ;  but  we  know  that  there  was 
usually  such  a  fabric  at  the  back,  over  the  entrance 

^  See  the  account  in  Collier,  u.s,,  324-8.  Among  the  literaiy  refer- 
ences which  he  gives  is  one  to  Randolph's  The  Muse*s  Lookirtg- Glass 
{sup,f  p.  454,  note  i),  which  is  of  interest  in  connection  with  the  Puritan 
hostility  to  the  theatres.  Mrs,  Flowerdew  (act  i.  sc.  2)  says  :  "  It  was  a 
zealous  prayer  I  heard  a  brother  make,  concerning  playhouses.  Bird, 
For  charity,  what  is't?  Mrs,  F.  That  the  Globe,  Wherein  (quoth  he) 
reigns  a  whole  world  of  vice,  Had  been  consum'd :  the  Phcenix  burnt  to 
ashes  :  .  .  .  Black-Friars,  He  wonders  how  it  'scap'd  demolishing  V  th' 
time  of  reformation  :  Lastly,  he  wished  The  Bull  might  cross  the  Thames 
to  the  Bear-garden,  And  there  be  soundly  baited.  Bird.  A  good  prayer." 
(Dodsley,  Old  Plays^  1825,  voL  ix.) 


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46o    PRODUCTION  OF  "THE  TEMPEST" 

from  the  dressing-rooms.  Juliet's  balcony  is  proof 
enough  for  the  Globe ;  Marston's  Fawn  climbs  a  tree 
and  is  received  **  above  "  by  Dulcimel  ;^  and  the  Queen 
of  Cyprus  in  The  Dumb  Knight^  by  Lewis  Machin 
and  Gervase  Markham,  pl^ys  Mount-saint,  or  Piquet, 
'^ aloft"  with  PhilocleSy  while  the  King,  disguised  as 
one  of  the  guard,  watches  them  from  the  side  of  the 
stage. ^  In  the  private  houses  the  balcony  was  freely 
used.  In  The  Tempest^  Prospero  stood  there  invisible, 
when  the  lovers  met  in  the  yard.  He  must  have 
mounted  the  upper  stage  while  they  talked ;  when  they 
departed,  he  came  forward  and  spoke  down  to  the 
audience.'  And  again,  in  the  scene  with  the  three 
villains,  when  the  trumpery  from  the  house  is  brought 
''for  stale  to  catch  these  thieves,"  we  must  suppose 
that,  while  Caliban  and  his  friends  groped  about  near 
the  entrance  and  the  curtain  that  was  supposed  to  hide 
the  cell,  Prospero  and  Ariel  ensconced  themselves  un- 
seen in  the  fabric  above.* 

The  principal  entrance  must  have  been  under  the 
balcony.  It  was  generally  covered  by  a  large  curtain  ; 
but,  if  that  were  ''knocked  up,"*  the  opening  would 
serve  to  show  the  interior  of  a  room  or  a  cavern.  In 
The  Tempest  there  is  a  famous  example.  "This  cell's 
my  court,"  says  Prospero— 

•*  here  have  I  few  attendants 
And  subjects  none  abroad  :  pray  you,  look  in." 

He  lifts  the  tapestry,  and  so  "discovers"  Ferdinand 
playing  at  chess  with  Miranda.^  On  each  side  of  the 
entrance  and  along  one  breadth  of  the  platform  there 
were  rods  and  rings  for  side-curtains,  where  the  actors 
took  unseen   parts,   or  sang,   or  made   a   "confused 

^  Act  V.  sc  I,  in  Bullen's  ed.  of  Marston,  1885,  etc.,  voL  ii.  p.  210. 

*  Act  iv.  sc,  I  in  Dodsley,  «.*.,  voL  iv. 

•  Tempest  J  iii.  i,  *  /dL,  iv.  i, 

»  Kyd,  The  Spanish  Tragedy,  act  v.  (Dodsley,  «.*.,  vol.  iii.) ;  "  Enter 
Hieronimo,  he  knocks  up  the  curtain."  *  Tempest^  v.  i. 


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ARRANGEMENT  OF  THEATRE         461 

noise,"  as  might  be  required;  and,  on  occasion,  a 
screen,  or  ** traverse,"  was  set  near  the  tapestry,  so  that 
a  speech  might  be  given  without  the  figure  being  seen. 
We  have  some  hint  of  this  in  The  Tempest.  Antonio, 
his  brother's  substitute,  persuaded  himself  that  he  was 
the  actual  Duke,  ^'out  of  the  substitution,"  and  as 
wearing  the  face  royal  by  prerogative  right.  Says 
Prospero : 

**  To  have  no  screen  between  this  part  he  played 

And  him  he  played  it  for,  he  needs  will  be 

Absolute  Milan.  "1 

There  was  no  scenery  in  the  modern  sense  of  the 
term.*  **  Before  the  Wars,"  says  the  Cavalier  in 
Vix\^i!s  HisUma  Histrionka{9\xy\x\,\(^g:^^  **.  .  .  tho* 
the  town  was  not  much  more  than  half  so  populous  as 
now,  yet  then  the  prices  were  small  (there  being  no 
scenes)."'  Davenant  brought  the  fashion  from  France 
when  acting  was  still  forbidden,  and  gave  The  Siege  of 
Rhodes^  Sir  Francis  Drake^  and  other  recitations  and 
private  theatricals,  ''made  a  presentation  by  the  Art 
of  Prospective  in  Scenes,  and  the  Story  sung  in  Recita- 
tive Musick."*  After  the  Restoration  he  began  again 
to  use  scenery  at  the  Duke  of  York's  house  in  Portugal 
Row,^  and  the  King's  Players  followed  suit,  when,  in 
1663,  they  moved  from  the  Tennis  Court  by  Clare 
Market  to  Drury  Lane.     The  accounts  of  the  Lord 

*  /</.,  i.  2,  107-9. 

'  In  The  Spanish  Tragedy,  u.s.,  we  have  a  passag^e  illustrating  the 
primitive  character  of  contemporary  **  scenery. "  "  Well  done,  Balthazar, 
hang  up  the  title :  Our  scene  is  Rhodes."  The  passage  in  Sidney's 
Apologiejbr  Ihetrie  is  familiar :  "What  childe  is  there,  that  coming  to  a 
play  and  seeing  Thebes  written  in  great  letters  upon  an  old  door,  doth 
believ  that  it  is  Thebes?*'  '  In  Dodsley,  M.f.,  vol  I  p.  cxlviii. 

«  Title-page  of  The  Siege  of  Rhodes,  1656,  in  Dramatic  Works  of  Sir 
W,  lyAvenant,  Edinburgh,  1873,  vol.  iii.  p.  232.  The  Siege  of  Rhodes 
(1656)  was  produced  at  Rutland  House  in  Aldersgate  Street;  The  Cruelty 
of  the  Spaniards  in  Peru  (1658)  and  The  History  of  Sir  Francis  Drake 
(1659),  at  the  Cockpit  in  Drury  Lane.  See  A.  W.  Ward,  op.  cit,  iii 
280-5. 

B  The  Portugal  Row  theatre  was  opened  in  1661,  closed  in  1673. 


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462     PRODUCTION   OF   *'THE  TEMPEST" 

Admiral's  company,  among  the  Henslowe  MSS.  at 
Duiwichy  show  that  the  actors  used  properties  almost 
fit  to  be  classed  among  '' scenes,"  such  as  a  ''hell's 
mouth,"  after  Orcagna's  style,  a  city  of  Rome,  castles 
and  villages,  the  tomb  of  Dido,  ** pageants"  in  wood- 
work and  canvas,  and  ''a  cloth  of  the  Sun  and  Moon," 
which,  in  Boswell's  opinion,  was  ''the  Ne  plus  iMra'^ 
of  those  days.  It  is  very  possible  that  a  rude  mast 
and  tackling  were  used  in  The  Tempest^  when  the  play 
opened  on  a  ship  at  sea.  The  cabins  were  behind  the 
side-hangings ;  the  master  would  naturally  mount  the 
balcony.  "Where  is  the  master,  boatswain?"  asks 
Antonio.  "Do  you  not  hear  him?"  is  the  answer. 
"You  mar  our  labour:  keep  your  cabins:  you  do 
assist  the  storm."* 

The  stage-covering,  or  "shadow,"  in  the  public 
theatres  was  sometimes  known  as  the  "heavens." 
Malone  inferred,  from  Heywood's  words  in  the  Apology 
for  Actors  J  that  this  was  painted  a  sky-colour  or  welkin 
blue.^  But  the  phrase  may  have  been  a  mere  copy  of 
the  Italian  cielo;  and  in  a  tragedy,  we  know,  by 
familiar  examples,  that  "the  heavens  "  were  hung  with 
black.^  A  private  theatre  had  a  proper  ceiling  instead 
of  a  painted  canvas ;  but  there  was  nothing  to  prevent 
the  use  of  "property"  clouds  and  draperies.  This 
would  suit  Trinculo's  storm,  which  sang  in  the  wind, 
while  a  cloud  arose  like  a  black-jack  full  of  muddy  beer. 

"  Yond  same  black  cloud,  yond  huge  one,  looks  like  a  foul 
bombard  that  would  shed  his  liquor.  If  it  should  thunder 
as  it  did  before,  I  know  not  where  to  hide  my  head : 
yond  same  cloud  cannot  choose  but  fall  by  pailfuls."  ^ 

The  bombards  at  the  court  buttery  were  the  huge 
pails   in  which  the  maids  and  pages  received   their 

^  Tempest^  i.  i,  12-14.        '  Malone's  Shakespeare^  ed.  Boswell,  iii.  108. 

•  I  Henry  VI,,  i.  i.  So  Northward  Ho,  iv.  i :  "As  I  was  saying,  the 
stage  all  hung  with  black  velvet,"  where  the  reference  is  to  Chapman's 
Conspiracy  of  Byron.  *  Tempest,  ii.  2,  20-5. 


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SCENERY  AND  STAGE-COVERING     463 

**  broken  beer."^  The  bombard  in  The  Tempest  is 
the  shadow  of  a  cloud  on  the  ceiling,  or  a  drapery 
with  a  similar  efiFect,  in  shape  like  the  stumpy  cannon 
that  were  used  as  pieces  for  bombardment,  or  like  a 
magnified  'leather  bottel,"  or  a  huge  boot,  or  the 
largest  of  the  shiny  pails  which  slopped  the  floor  near 
the  butler's  hatch.* 


Ill 

CHARACTERISTICS     OP     PRIVATE     THEATRES — SITTING    ON     THE 
STAGE — ^THE  INDUCTION  TO  JONSON'S  "CYNTHIA'S  REVELS  " 

The  difiFerences  between  a  private  theatre  and  a 
common  playhouse  may  be  classified  as  follows.^  The 
prices  at  the  former  were  high,  but  the  standard  of 
comfort  was  totally  different.  The  roof  was  covered  in 
with  a  ceiling;  the  windows  were  glazed;  and  there 
were  comfortable,  though  narrow,  seats  throughout  the 
pit  and  the  galleries.     The  stage  was  small ;  for  even 

^  The  daily  allowance  of  meat  and  drink  was  called  <'bouge  {i,e.  Fr. 
hotuihe)  of  court"  So  Jonson,  Masque  of  Augurs^  acted  at  court  on 
Twelfth-Night,  162 1-2  ;  Groom  ,  .  .  I  am  an  officer,  groom  of  the  revels, 
that  is  my  place.  Notch,  To  fetch  boug-e  of  court,  a  parcel  of  invisible 
bread  and  beer  for  the  players."  In  Skelton's  allegorical  poem  of  this 
name,  Bouge  of  Courte  is  the  name  of  the  ship  of  Fortune.  In  Jonson's 
masque  of  Mercury  Vindicated  from  the  Alchemists,  acted  at  court  1614, 
Mercury  describes  a  bargain  he  has  concluded  with  the  alchemists : 
"  One  day  I  am  to  deliver  the  buttery  in,  so  many  firkins  of  autum 
potahile  as  it  delivers  out  bombards  of  houge  to  them  between  this  and 
that." 

'  In  another  passage  of  Shakespeare  (Henry  VIIL,  v.  4,  82-6),  a 
*'jack"  of  this  kind  is  compared  to  the  uncouth  form  of  a  bear  tied  to 
the  post,  and  attacked  by  thirsty  enemies  on  all  sides  at  once.  The  Lord 
Chamberlain  rebukes  the  noisy  servants  in  the  palace-yard.  "  Ye  are 
lazy  knaves ;  And  here  ye  lie  hatting  of  bombards,  when  Ye  should  do 
service."  John  Taylor,  the  water-poet,  in  the  argument  of  FareTvel,  to 
the  Tomer  Bottles,  Dort,  1622,  relates  the  history  of  the  gift  of  "  two 
black  Leather  Bottles,  or  Bombards  of  wine,"  granted  to  the  Tower 
'*  from  every  ship  that  brought  wine  into  the  river  of  Thames." 

'  Collier,  op,  cit.,  iii.  335-40.  In  addition  to  those  tabulated  here,  we 
learn  that  **  the  boxes  or  rooms  at  private  theatres  were  enclosed  and 
locked,  and  the  key  given  to  the  individual  engaging  them." 


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4fi4    PRODUCTION  OF   **THE  TEMPEST" 

the  forty-three  foot  platform  at  the  Fortune  was  called 
''vast"  in  comparison  with  the  boards  at  Blackfriars. 
The  house  was  lighted  with  chandeliers  and  wax 
candles ;  but  where  the  yard  was  open  to  the  weather, 
as  at  the  Globe  or  Fortune,  they  could  use  only 
branched  candlesticks  on  the  stage,  with  ** cressets"  or 
cages  for  tarred  ropes'  ends  to  flare  in  front  of  the 
boxes.  The  plays  in  the  private  houses  were  acted 
usually  by  boys,  some  of  whom  belonged  to  the  choir 
of  St.  Paul's;  others,  the  Queen's  Children  of  the 
Revels,  belonged  to  the  Chapel  Royal.  This  led  to 
the  ''throwing  about  of  brains"  in  the  quarrel  rebuked 
by  Hamlet.^  The  poets,  for  their  own  purposes,  stirred 
up  the  "aery  of  children"  to  "berattle  the  common 
stages,"  and  so  draw  the  public  to  Blackfriars  or  the 
singing-room  of  Paul's.  These  "little  eyases"  de- 
clined to  follow  the  actors'  reading,  or  "  cry  in  the  top 
of"  their  argument.  The  judgment  of  Hamlet's  friends 
had  cried  in  the  top  of  his  own,  when  he  praised  a  play 
that  displeased  the  million  ;  but  these  boys  went  quite 
beyond  the  proper  limits  of  discussion:  "they  cry  out 
on  the  top  of  question,  and  are  most  tyrannically 
clapped  for't." 

^  IfamUif  ii.  2.  About  1599  or  1600  (see  Fleay,  Bicg^.  (^nm,  Eng, 
Drama,  1891,  ii.  30,  78)  the  boys  of  Blackfriars  most  audaciously  invaded 
the  acting:  rig'hts  of  the  Globe  company  by  performing  Kyd's  famous 
Spanish  Tragedy,  The  King's  company,  in  1604,  annexed  Marston's 
Malcontent,  a  stock  piece  at  Blackfriars,  which  probably  had  been  pro- 
duced about  1 60 1  (see  A.  W.  Ward,  op,  cit,  ii.  483;  iii.  52).  Two 
editions  of  the  play  were  printed  in  1604;  the  second  is  prefaced  by 
Webster's  comical  induction.  "Why  not,"  says  Burbage  to  Sly  on  his 
three-legged  stool,  "why  not  Malevole  in  folio  with  us  as  well  as 
Jeronimo  in  decimo  sexto  with  them  ?  They  taught  us  a  name  for  our 
play,  we  call  it.  One  for  another,**  Burbage,  Sly,  Condell,  Lowin,  and 
Sinklow  took  various  parts  in  the  induction ;  but  it  is  clear  that  Shake- 
speare himself  was  not  pla3ring  at  the  time.  There  are  respectful 
references  to  his  works,  as  when  Sly  quotes  from  Osric's  part  in  Hamlet, 
V.  2,  109,  refusing  to  put  on  his  hat  with  "  No,  in  good  faith  for  mine 
ease,"  and  again,  when  he  offers  to  compose  an  ending,  and,  with  a  bow 
and  a  scrape,  throws  off  a  passable  imitation  of  the  epilogue  to  As  You 
Like  It. 


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THE  PRtVSTE  THEATRES  465 

The  custom  of  sitting  on  the  stage,  either  on  stools  or 
among  the  rushes  on  the  floor,  prevailed  in  all  the 
private  houses  among  the  visitors :  we  may  perhaps 
regard  the  row  of  stools  by  the  arras  as  a  rough  equiva- 
lent for  our  modern  stalls.^  The  town-fops  smoked  and 
cracked  nuts  on  the  platform,  and  sometimes  slapped 
down  their  cards  in  a  game,  just  as  the  third  trumpet 
was  sounding,  and  the  Prologue  stood  quaking  in  his 
black  velvet  cloak  at  the  entrance.^  The  excuse  was 
made  that  it  was  necessary  to  judge  of  the  acting  very 
closely,  as  appears  by  the  preface  to  the  first  folio  of 
Shakespeare's  plays.  "Censure,"  wrote  the  editors, 
"will  not  drive  a  trade  or  make  the  jacke  go.  And 
though  you  be  a  magistrate  of  wit,  and  sit  on  the  stage 
of  Black-Friers  or  the  Cock-pit  to  arraigne  playes  dailie, 
know,  these  playes  have  had  their  triall  alreadie,  and 
stood  out  all  appeales."    A  gallant  sometimes  would 


^  Allusions  to  this  custom  are  innumerable.  Ben  Jonson,  The  Devil 
is  an  Ass  (acted  by  the  King's  men  at  Blackfriars,  1616),  i.  3,  has  a 
passag-e  to  the  point.  Fitzdottrel  has  a  new  cloak,  to  be  seen  in  which 
he  purposes  to  **  go  to  the  Blackfriars  playhouse  "  ;  self-display,  he  tells 
his  wife,  is  "  a  special  end  why  we  go  thither,  All  that  pretend  to  stand 
foi't  on  the  stage,**  Collier,  op,  cit,,  iii.  339,  quotes]  Francis  Lenton's 
Young  Gallon fs  Whirligigs  1629 :  ''The  Cockpit  heretofore  would  serve 
his  wit,  But  now  tipon  the  Friars  stage  he*ll  sit,*'  The  epilogue  to 
Chapman's  All  Fools,  a  Blackfriars  play^  contains  an  allusion  to  the 
critics  and  their  tripods :  *'  We  can  but  bring  you  meat,  and  set  you 
stools  "  ;  and,  in  the  prologue,  the  self-appointed  judges  are  prayed  not 
to  spoil  the  performance  by  leaving  their  places  too  soon  :  *'  If  our  other 
audience  see  You  on  the  stage  depart  before  we  end ;  Our  wits  go  with 
you  all,  and  we  are  fools." 

*  Prologue  to  Hey  wood's  Four  Prentices  of  London  (in  Dodsley,  «.s., 
voL  vi.).  Three  rival  prologues  meet  at  the  entrance ;  the  first  ex- 
postulates :  "  What  mean  you,  my  masters,  to  appear  thus  before  your 
times  ?  Do  you  not  know  that  I  am  the  Prologue  ?  Do  you  not  see 
this  long  black  velvet  cloak  upon  my  back?  Have  you  not  sounded 
thrice  ?  Do  I  not  look  pale  as  fearing  to  be  out  in  my  speech  ?  Nay 
have  I  not  all  the  signs  of  a  Prologue  about  me?"  In  the  prologue  to 
Fletcher's  Woman-Hater^  acted  by  the  children  of  Paul's  probably 
about  Easter,  1607,  ^^  t^aA  :  "Gentlemen,  inductions  are  out  of  date; 
and  a  Prologue  in  verse  is  as  stale  as  a  black  velvet  cloak  and  a  bay 
garland." 

2   H 


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466    PRODUCTION  OF   "THE  TEMPEST" 

propose  to  sit  on  the  stage  at  one  of  the  larger  theatres; 
but  he  would  generally  be  turned  off  amid  a  shower  of 
bitten  apples,  with  yells  and  catcalls  and  shouts  of 
*'  Away  with  the  fool ! "  In  the  induction  to  The  Mal- 
content, William  Sly,  the  actor,  disguised  as  a  fop, 
mounts  the  platform  at  the  Globe,  and  asks  one  of  the 
dressers  for  a  three-legged  stool.  "Sir,"  is  the  answer, 
"the  gentlemen  will  be  angry  if  you  sit  here."  Sly 
retorts:  "Why  we  may  sit  upon  the  stage  at  the 
private  house.  Thou  do'st  not  take  me  for  a  country 
gentleman,  do'st?  do'st  thou  fear  hissing?  " 

Ben  Jonson  brought  out  in  the  year  1600  his  Cynthia^s 
RevelSj  which  was  acted  by  the  children  of  the  Chapel, 
at  Blackfriars.  Before  the  play  opened,  the  author  sent 
on  three  of  the  boys  for  an  induction,  in  which  the 
practice  of  smoking  on  the  stage  was  satirised.  The 
chief  parts  were  taken  by  Nathaniel  Field,  the  Mercury 
of  the  play,  John  Underwood,  who  seems  to  have  been 
the  traveller  Amorphus,  and  probably  by  Salathiel  Pavy, 
who  played  Cupid.  John  Underwood  is  addressed  as 
"  Resolute  Jack"  by  way  of  an  allusion  to  "resolute " 
John  Florio.  Field,  who  appears  as  "number  three," 
gives  an  imitation  of  a  genteel  auditor  with  clay 
pipe  alight :  "I  have  my  three  sorts  of  tobacco  in  my 
pocket,  my  light  by  me,  and  thus  I  begin."  Mixtures  not 
being  invented,  he  must  bring  three  kinds  in  his  pouch, 
"cane,  pudding,  and  right  Trinidado/' and  was  lucky  if 
his  herb  were  not  mostly  yellow  henbane,  or  a  quarter  of 
a  pound  of  colt's-foot  to  every  half-pound  that  had  crossed 
the  Atlantic.  He  smokes  and  pu£fs  between  his  sen- 
tences.    "  By  this  light,  I  wonder  that  any  man  is  so 

mad,  to  come  to  see  these  rascally  tits  play  here. 

They  do  act  like  so  many  wrens  or  pismires not  the 

fifth  part  of  a  good  face  amongst  them  all. And  then 

their  music  is  abominable able  to  stretch  a  man's 

ears  worse  than  ten pillories,  and  their  ditties 

most  lamentable  things,  like  the  pitiful  fellows  that  make 

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''CYNTHIA'S   REVELS"  467 

them poets."  The  object  of  these  precocious  child- 
players  is  far  from  that  of  ''berattling  the  common 
stages  "  as  **  little  eyases."  Field  was  only  thirteen  at 
this  time ;  the  others  younger :  yet,  later  in  the  same 
play,  these  words  are  made  to  describe  their  aim  and 
ambition.  "  Since  we  are  turn'd  cracks,"  says  Mercury 
to  Cupid,  ''let's  study  to  be  like  cracks  ;  practise  their 
language  and  behaviours,  and  not  with  a  dead  imitation : 
Act  freely,  carelessly,  and  capriciously,  as  if  our  veins 
ran  with  quicksilver,  and  not  utter  a  phrase,  but  what 
shall  come  forth  steep'd  in  the  very  brine  of  conceit, 
and  sparkle  like  salt  in  fire."^ 

In  the  next  "turn,"  Jack  Underwood  is  lounging 
about,  dressed  ready  to  come  on,  and  Field  is  a  sober 
"garter-gathered"  squire,  unused  to  the  ways  of  the 
town.  Underwood  steps  forth  "like  one  of  the  children. " 
"  Would  you  have  a  stool,  sir  ?  "  "A  stool,  boy  1"  "Ay, 
sir,  if  you'll  give  me  sixpence  I'll  fetch  you  one."  "  For 
what,  I  pray  thee?  what  shall  I  do  with  it?"  "O  Lord, 
sir  I  will  you  betray  your  ignorance  so  much  ?  why, 
throne  yourself  in  state  on  the  stage,  as  other  gentlemen 
use,  sir."  The  next  answer  is  full  of  information  about 
the  stage  decorations.  "  Away,  wag ;  what,  would'st 
thou  make  an  implement  of  me  ?  'Slid,  the  boy  takes 
me  for  a  piece  of  perspective,  I  hold  my  life,  or  some 
silk  curtain,  come  to  hang  the  stage  here  !  Sir  crack, 
I  am  none  of  your  fresh  pictures,  that  use  to  beautify 
the  decayed  dead  arras  in  a  public  theatre." 

Underwood  next  gives  a  sketch  in  which  Jonson 
himself  is  contrasted  with  the  ordinary  playwright  at 
rehearsal,  the  officious  poet  who  is  always  in  the  tiring- 
house.  He  begs  the  visitor  to  leave  the  stage,  as  the 
play  is  about  to  begin.    "Most  willingly,  my  good  wag ; 

^  Cynthia's  Revels,  ii.  i.  For  the  use  of  "crack"  (defined  in  Nares' 
Glossary  as  "a  boy  .  .  .  Uiat  cracks  or  boasts)  cf.  2  Henry  IV.,  iii.  2, 
32-4,  *'  I  saw  him  break  Skogan's  head  at  the  court-gate,  when  a'  was 
a  crock  not  thus  high." 


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468    PRODUCTION   OF   ''THE  TEMPEST" 

but  I  would  speak  with  your  author :  where  is  he  ? " 
''Not  this  way,  I  assure  you,  sir;  we  are  not  so 
officiously  befriended  by  him,  as  to  have  his  presence 
in  the  tiring-house,  to  prompt  us  aloud,  stamp  at  the 
book-holder,  swear  for  our  properties,  curse  the  poor 
tireman,  rail  the  music  out  of  tune,  and  sweat  for 
every  venial  trespass  we  commit.  ...  If  you  please  to 
confer  with  our  author,  by  attorney  you  may,  sir  ;  our 
proper  self  here,  stands  for  him."  The  visitor  rails  at 
the  authors  who  stuff  their  plays  with  stories  out  of  old 
books,  or  from  the  mouths  of  laundresses  and  hackney 
men,  or  the  common  stages.  Towards  the  end  he  gives 
his  interlocutor  a  warning.  "O,  (I  had  almost  forgot 
it  too,)  they  say  the  umbra  or  ghosts  of  some  three  or 
four  plays  departed  a  dozen  years  since,  have  been  seen 
walking  on  your  stage  here ;  take  heed,  boy,  if  your 
house  be  haunted  with  such  hobgoblins,  'twill  fright 
away  all  your  spectators  quickly."  "Good,  sir;  but 
what  will  you  say  now,  if  a  poet,  untouched  with  any 
breath  of  this  disease,  find  the  tokens  upon  you,  that 
are  of  the  auditory  ?  "  This  is  an  allusion  to  the  pesti- 
lence of  1593,  to  which  Shakespeare  had  alluded  in 
Lovers  Labour^ s  LosO 

^  Love's  Labour's  Lost,  v.  2,  41&-23. 

*'  Soft,  let  us  see : 

Write  *  Lord  have  mercy  on  us  *  on  those  three ; 

They  are  infected,  in  their  hearts  it  lies  ; 

They  have  the  plague,  and  caught  it  of  your  eyes  ; 

These  lords  are  visited ;  you  are  not  free, 

For  the  Lord's  tokens  on  you  do  I  see." 
There  is  not  enough  in  Jonson's  allusion  to  show  that  he  was  thinking  of 
Shakespeare.  All  that  he  actually  says  is  that  a  poet,  with  no  tokens  of 
staleness  about  him,  might  find  ghosts  enough  among  the  audience,  who 
talked  of  twenty  years  since,  and  the  fashions  '*  when  Monsieur  was 
here,"  or  swore  '*  that  the  old  Hieronimo,  as  it  was  first  penned,  was  the 
only  best  and  judiciously  penned  play  of  Europe." 

Allusions  to  the  ''tokens"  of  pestilence  in  Shakespeare  are  not  un- 
common after  the  great  outbreak  of  plague  in  the  winter  of  1602,  which, 
between  Christmas  and  Christmas,  killed  in  London  and  its  liberties 
more  than  30,000  people.  The  tokens  were  redder  than  in  former  pesti- 
lences: hard  spots  of  a  bright  flaming  red  were  accounted  a  fatal 


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THE  CHILDREN  OF  THE  CHAPEL     469 


IV 

THE  CHILDREN   OF  THE  CHAPEL— NATHANIEL  FIELD — THE   PART 
OF  ARIEL  IN    "the   TEMPEST  " 

From  its  opening  in  1597  till  the  spring  of  1603  ^^^ 
Blackfriars  theatre  was  served  by  the  **  Children  of 
the  Chapel,"  or,  in  other  words,  by  the  choristers  of  the 
Chapel  Royal  at  Whitehall.  They  were  under  the  orders 
of  Dr.  Nathaniel  Giles,  Master  in  Song,^  and  after- 
wards organist,  and  they  received  instructions  in  acting 
from  Mr.  Henry  Evans,  the  lessee  and  manager.     Dr. 

symptom.  When  Cleopatra  spread  her  satis  in  flight,  the  battle,  says  the 
Roman,  looked  *Mike  the  tokened  pestilence,  where  death  is  sure  (AnL 
and  Cleopatra^  iii.  lo,  9-10).  Volumnia  (Coriolanus,  iv.  i,  13)  called  down 
the  "red  pestilence"  on  "all  the  trades  in  Rome."  Caliban's  curse 
(Tempestt  i.  2,  363)  was  "the  red  plague  rid  you,"  or,  as  Davenant 
altered  the  reading,  the  "red  botch."  The  writer  possessed  a  receipt- 
book  written  out  in  1627  by  "  Elizabeth  Bulkley,"  showing  how  the  red 
plagfue  required  red  medicine — ivy  berries,  red  sage,  and  red  bramble 
leaves.  Hartman,  in  his  Preserver  of  Healthy  1682,  pp.  69, 75, 1 28-30,  gives 
numerous  receipts  of  a  similar  kind  for  plague-waters  and  cordials ;  and 
Dr.  Creighton  tells  us,  in  his  History  of  Epidemics  (i.  676),  that  the 
nurses  in  the  last  plague  used  to  say  that  "cochineal  is  a  fine  thing 
to  bring  out  the  tokens." 

The  end  of  the  induction  to  Cynthia* s  Revels  contains  a  phrase  which 
illustrates  AWs  Well  that  Ends  Welly  iv.  i,  22:  "chough's  language, 
gabble  enough,  and  good  enough."  "  Here,  take  your  cloak,"  says 
Field  to  Pavy,  "and  promise  some  satisfaction  in  your  prologue,  or, 
I'll  be  sworn  we  have  marr'd  alL"  "  Tut,  fear  not,  child,"  adds  Under, 
wood,  "  this  will  never  distaste  a  true  sense :  be  not  out,  and  good 
enough,** 

^  The  history  of  the  Children  of  the  Chapel  was  traced  by  Dr.  Rim- 
bault  in  the  edition  of  the  Old  Cheque-book,  or  Book  of  Remembrance, 
of  the  Chapel  Royal  from  1561  to  i744>  printed  for  the  Camden  Society 
in  1882.  His  list  of  "  Masters  of  the  Song"  begins  with  Henry  Abingdon 
and  Gilbert  Banister,  mentioned  in  acts  of  resumption  of  the  X3th  and 
22nd  Ed.  iv.  Under  William  Cornish,  who  followed  Banister,  the  gentle- 
men of  the  Chapel  acted  before  the  King,  and  received  rewards  as 
players  of  the  Chapel :  "  When  the  Children  took  part  in  a  dramatic 
performance  under  Cornish,  they  received  a  gratuity  of  ;£6.  13.  4."  (pp. 
iv.,  v.).  This  was  the  equivalent  of  ten  marks  or  twenty  nobles  in 
the  old  money  of  account,  the  mark  being  taken  at  135.  ^  and  the 
noble  at  6$.  %d. 


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470    PRODUCTION  OF  "THE  TEMPEST" 

Giles  was  deputed  to  exercise  the  prerogative  right 
of  impressing  boys  with  good  voices  for  service  in  the 
Chapel  Royal  and  for  taking  part  in  entertainments  at 
Court.  The  custom  of  pressing  boys  for  service  in  the 
choir  existed  as  far  back  as  the  time  of  Richard  III., 
and  probably  grew  out  of  a  still  older  claim  to  enrol 
minstrels  for  the  King's  service.  It  was  part  of  the 
children's  duty  to  act  plays  at  Court,  and  it  became 
the  practice  to  train  them  at  one  of  the  smaller  theatres. 
The  choristers  of  St.  Paul's  were  taught  in  their  own 
singing-room,  behind  the  convocation-house  and  near 
the  library,  until  the  cathedral  was  burned.  Out  of  the 
eight  Chapel  Royal  choristers  it  was  usual  to  send  six 
at  one  time  to  be  trained  at  Blackfriars ;  but  an  order 
was  made  in  1626,  while  Dr.  Giles  was  still  master, 
to  pacify  the  Puritans,  "  that  none  of  the  Choristers  or 
Children  of  the  Chappell,  soe  to  be  taken  by  force 
of  this  Commission,  shalbe  used  or  imployed  as  Come- 
dians or  Stage  players,  or  to  exercise  or  acte  any  Stage 
plaies,  interludes.  Comedies  or  Tragedies."^  Besides 
their  singing  and  acting,  the  choristers  were  obliged  to 
attend  classes  in  their  grammar  school.  When  their 
time  was  out,  two  of  them  had  a  claim  to  be  appointed 
''epistlers,"  or  readers  of  the  epistle,  and  to  take  rank 
among  the  yeomen  of  the  Chapel.  If  any  of  the 
children  reached  eighteen  years  of  age,  and  his  voice 
was  changed,  then,  in  case  there  were  no  vacancy  in 
the  Chapel,  the  King  would  send  him  to  a  college 
of  his  foundation  at  Oxford  or  Cambridge,  "there  to 
be  at  fynding  and  studye  both  sufiytyently,  tylle  the 
King  may  otherwise  advaunse  them."  ^  While  engaged 
as  choristers,  they  were  expected  to  lodge  and  take 
their  meals  at  Whitehall ;  and  the  royal  accounts  show 
that  they  had  daily  amoog  them  "two  loaves,  one 

^  Printed  in  Collier,  op,  cii.,  ii.  i6;  Rimbault,  u,s.f  pp.  viiL,  ix.  The 
stage-plays  are  reckoned  in  this  document  among  "lascivious  and  pro- 
phane  exercises."  '  Rimbaulti  u.s.t  p.  iv. 


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BOY  COMEDIANS  47' 

messe  of  greate  meate,  ij  galones  of  ale/'  with  the 
addition,  in  the  winter  season,  of  four  candles  of  pitch, 
three  faggots  of  cleft  wood,  and  litter  for  their  pallets.^ 

We  already  have  referred  to  the  children  who  took 
the  chief  parts  in  the  performance  of  Cynthia^s  Revels. 
''This  comical  satire,"  we  read  in  Jonson's  description 
of  the  cast,  ''was  first  acted  in  the  year  1600  by  the 
then  children  of  Queen  Elizabeth's  Chapel ;  the  principal 
comedians  were  Nat  Field,  John  Underwood,  Sal  Pavy, 
Robert  Baxter,  Thomas  Day,  and  John  Frost."  Baxter 
and  Frost  were  replaced  by  William  Ostler  and  Thomas 
Marton,  a  junior  chorister,  before  The  Poetaster  was 
brought  out  in  the  next  season.  Pavy  acted  in  the  last- 
named  play,  but  died  early  in  1603,  at  the  age  of 
thirteen,  having  acted  for  three  years  at  the  Blackfriars, 
chiefly  in  old  men's  characters.  So  much  we  gather 
from  Jonson's  well-known  epitaph  on  "S.P.  a  child 
of  Queen  Elizabeth's  Chapel. "« 

Underwood  probably  left  the  house  at  Blackfriars 
and  the  company  of  children  who  then  acted  in  it 
about  1608,  when,  as  we  shall  see,  they  had  to  leave  the 
theatre.  His  name  is  not  in  the  list  of  Children  of  the 
Revels  who  acted  Jonson's  Silent  Woman  at  White- 
friars  in  that  year;  and  the  cast  of  The  Alchemist  in 
1610  shows  that  he  had  joined  the  King's  players  at 
the  Globe.  About  the  same  time  he  acquired  shares 
and  interests  in  the  Globe  itself,  in  the  Blackfriars 
house,  and  in  the  Curtain  Theatre  at  Shoreditch.  By 
his  will  in  1624  he  disposed  of  these  shares  on  trusts 
in  favour  of  his  children,  describing  them  as  "the 
part  or  share,  that  I  have  and  enjoy  at  this  present  by 
lease  or  otherwise  •  .  .  within  the  Blackfriars,  London, 
or  in  the  company  of  His  Majesty's  servants,  my  loving 
and  kind  fellows,  in  their  house  there,  or  at  the  Globe, 
on  the  Bankside ;  and  also  that  my  part  and  share  or 

^  Rimbaulty  «/.,  p.  iii.  The  word  used  for  ''fag^gots  of  cleft  wood"  is 
'^talsbeids.*'  ^  Jonson,  Epigramsy  cxx. 


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472    PRODUCTION  OF   '*THE  TEMPEST" 

due  in  or  out  of  the  playhouse  called  the  Curtaine, 
situate  in  or  near  Holloway,  in  the  parish  of  St.  Leonard, 
London."^ 

William  Ostler's  name  appears  among  the  principal 
comedians  in  The  Alchemist^  described  by  Jonson  as 
**  first  acted  in  1610  by  the  King's  Majesty's  Servants." 
He  was  called  the  **  Roscius  of  these  times"  and  "the 
King  of  actors  "  in  a  short  poem  by  John  Davies,  the 
schoolmaster  of  Hereford.^  It  was  admitted  on  all 
hands  that  Burbage  came  first;  but,  among  the 
younger  men,  Ostler  and  Field  were  perhaps  the  best 
pair  of  actors  in  England.'  Both  Field  and  Ostler 
appear  in  the  first  folio  among  the  principal  actors  in 
Shakespeare's  plays.  Ostler  had  left  the  stage,  or  was 
dead,  before  the  volume  appeared.  Field  was  among 
those  who  signed  the  actors'  prefatory  address ;  and  it 
is  conjectured  that  he  had  then  been  a  member  of  the 
company  for  about  four  years.  Mr.  Payne  Collier 
points  out  that  he  was  engaged  at  Paris  Garden  for 
some  time  after  1614,  and  that  his  name  does  not 
occur  before  1619  in  any  extant  patent.  As  we  have 
seen,  he  was  a  chorister  of  the  Chapel  Royal ;  but, 
about  1606,  we  find  him  taking  the  leading  part  in 
Bussy  d'Ambois^  presented  by  the  Children  of  Paul's.* 

^  Printed  by  Collier,  Memoirs  of  ike  Principal  Actors  in  th4  Plays  of 
Shakespeare^  1846,  pp.  229-30. 

2  Collier,  id,  202-3  t  Davies,  Scourge  of  Folly ^  ep.  205. 

'  The  celebrity  of  Field  is,  at  any  rate,  beyond  any  question.  There 
was  a  puppet-show  in  Jonson's  Bartholomew  Pair,  v.  3,  kept  by  one 
Lanthom  Leatherhead,  the  "master  of  the  monsters,"  identified  by  Fleay 
(Chronicle  of  English  Drama,  1891,  i.  378)  and  others  with  Inigo  Jones — 
a  doubtful,  but  plausible  conjecture.  Leatherhead  is  asked  a  question 
about  his  *^  small  players."  "Which  is  your  Burbag-e  now  ?  "  "What 
mean  you  by  that,  sir  ?  "     "  Your  best  actor,  your  Field  ?  " 

*  The  date  of  performance  of  Chapman's  drama  is  uncertain.  Fleay, 
1^.^.,  i.  60,  inclines  to  1605.  It  may  have  been  performed  much  earlier, 
since  Tucca  in  Satiromastix,  1601  (Dekker's  Dram,  Works,  ^873,  i.  230), 
quotes  a  line  from  the  tragedy,  as  if  it  were  well  known  :  "  Go  not  out 
farthing  candle,  go  not  out.  For  trusty  Damboys  now  the  deed  is  done." 
The  tragedy  was  one  of  the  stock  plays  of  the  Children  of  Paul's.    The 


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NATHANIEL  FIELD  473 

As  he  was  certainly  not  a  chorister  in  the  cathedral,  we 
must  suppose  that  he  was  just  then  free  of  engagements, 
or  lent  for  the  occasion  by  his  manager.  He  soon 
returned  to  Blackfriars,  where  he  acted  among  the 
Queen's  Children  of  the  Revels,  and  afterwards  as  a 
grown-up  actor,  when  the  King's  Company  took  over 
the  house  in  addition  to  the  Globe.  This  may  explain 
a  disputed  passage  in  Wright's  Historia  Histrionica  of 
1699.  **Some  of  those  Chapel  boys,  when  they  grew 
men,  became  actors  at  the  Black-friers,  such  were 
Nathan.  Field,  and  John  Underwood."^  Field  became 
a  dramatist  of  some  note.  Gerard  Langbaine  gave  him 
a  kindly  notice  in  his  gossiping  account  of  the  dramatic 
poets.*  **Not  only  a  Lover  of  the  Muses,  but  belov'd 
by  them,  and  the  Poets  his  Contemporaries.  He  was 
adopted  by  Mr.  Chapman  for  his  Son  {i.e.  in  literature), 
and  call'd  in  by  Old  Masstnger  to  his  Assistance,  in  the 
play  caird  The  Fatal  Daivfy."*  Field,  he  added,  '*  writ 
himself  two  plays  which  will  still  bear  reading."  The 
first  of  these  was  written  in  Field's  youth  ;  it  was  called 
A  Woman  is  a  Weathercock^  and  was  brought  out  at 
the  private  house  in  Whitefriars  in  or  before  1610. 
Very  soon  afterwards  he  produced  another  comedy, 
intended  as  an  apology  for  the  first,  and  entitled 
Amends  for  Ladies.  To  this  title,  in  1639,  were  added 
the  words,  **  with  the  merry  pranks  of  Moll  Cutpurse, 
or  the  Humour  of  Roaring."* 

prolog'ue  to  the  edition  of  1 641,  in  which  a  new  supporter  of  the  \AM^-r6le 
is  introduced,  contains  the  lines  *'  Field  is  gone,  Whose  action  first  did 
g^ive  it  name."  The  new  actor  is  supposed  by  some  to  be  Swanston, 
one  of  the  petitioners  in  the  lawsuit  (vide  infra),  ag^ainst  the  proprietors 
of  the  Globe  Theatre,  1635.  See  W.  L.  Phelps,  Best  Plays  of  George 
Chapman,  i^5t  p*  125,  note.  '  Printed  in  Dodsley,  u.f.,  p.  clvi. 

^  Lang'baine,  Account  of  Engiish  Dramatick  Poets,  1691,  p.  198. 

*  Fleay,  u.s.,  i.  208,  gives  the  date  of  performance  of  7%e  Fatal 
Dowry  as  ''  1619,  about  Shrovetide."  It  was  published  in  1632.  One 
passage,  ii.  2,  was  transferred  by  Field  from  Amends  for  Ladies, 

^  A.  W.  Ward,  op,  cit.,  iii.  49,  assumes,  from  internal  evidence,  the 
date  of  composition  of  both  plays  to  be  1610,  of  their  production  1610  or 
161 1.  See  Fleay,  u.s,,  i.  185,  201-2.     Mr.  A.  W.  Verity,  in  his  preface  to 


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474    PRODUCTION  OF   "THE  TEMPEST" 

There  are  some  £aint  indications  that  Nathaniel  Field 
may  have  acted  Ariel  in  The  Tempest.  Mr.  Payne 
Collier*  quoted  an  epigram  on  "Fuscus"  from  The 
Furies  of  Richard  Nichols  (1614).  Fuscus  had  left  his 
business  for  the  stage  "  in  hopes  to  outact  Roscius  in 
a  scene." 

"  Players  do  now  as  plentifully  grow 
As  spawn  of  frogs  in  March  ;  yet  evermore 
The  great  devour  theiess.     Be  wise,  therefore ; 
Procure  thou  some  commendatory  letter 
For  the  Burmoothe's — 'tis  a  course  far  better. " 

As  we  know  from  the  history  of  the  Summer  Islands 
that  the  colonists  were  then  at  the  extremity  of  their 
misery^  it  is  clear  that  the  advice  was  merely  sarcastic. 
Mr.  Collier  thought  that  this  "Roscius"  must  have 
been  Burbage ;  but  at  that  date  the  title  might  as  easily 
have  been  given  to  Field.  The  mention  of  the  "Bur- 
moothes"  instinctively  recalls  Ariel's  words  in  The 
Tempest^  where  he  speaks  of  the  creek : 

"Where  once 

Thou  cairdst  me  up  at  midnight  to  fetch  dew 

From  the  still- vex'd  Bermoothes."^ 

The  same  biographer  quotes  an  epigram  from  the 
Ashmolean  Library,  copied  into  many  commonplace 
books  of  the  seventeenth  century,  which  was  jocosely 
ascribed  to  Field.  It  was  headed,  ''Field,  the  Player, 
on  his  mistress,  the  Lady  May,"  and  began  : 

'Mt  is  the  fair  and  merry  month  of  May, 
That  clothes  the  Field  in  all  his  rich  array."' 

The  zephyrs  are  invoked  for  a  cool  breeze,  and  the 
clouds  so  kind  are  prayed  to  "  distil  their  honey  drops." 

the  plays  in  the  '*  Mermaid"  edition  (1888)  assigns  the  production  of  the 
first  to  1609,  of  the  second  to  1612.  In  1609-10  Field  would  have  been 
ty/enty-two  years  old  :  he  was  baptised  at  St.  Giles  without  Cripplegate, 
Oct.  17,  1587. 

*  Collier,  Memoirs  ofActorSy  p.  40,  note  2.  ^  Tempest^  i.  2,  227-9. 

»  The  epigram  will  be  found  on  p.  217  of  Collier's  Mtnunrs  0/ Principal 
Actors, 


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FIELD  AS  A  POSSIBLE  ARIEL         475 

This,  of  coursei  was  Ariel's  phrase  when  he  presented 
Queen  Ceres  in  the  masque.  Phaer,  in  his  translation 
of  Virgil^  had  spoken  of  ''Dame  Rainbow  with  saffron 
wings  of  dropping  showers  " ;  but  Shakespeare  seems 
to  have  altered  the  phrase  to  the  more  delicate  form : 

*'  Who  with  thy  saffron  wings  upon  my  flowers 
Dififusest  honey-drops."  ^ 

These  coincidences  of  phrase  may  suggest  a  reference 
to  Field's  assumption  of  the  part  of  Ariel,  but  are  too 
slight  to  be  in  any  sense  conclusive. 


THE  CHILDREN  OP  THE  QUEBN'S  REVELS  AT  BLACKFRIARS 

There  is  no  evidence  that  the  Children  of  the  Chapel 
acted  at  Blackfriars  after  Queen  Elizabeth's  death  on 
the  24th  of  March,  1603.  It  is  clear,  at  all  events,  that 
their  connection  with  that  theatre  ceased  at  the  end  of 
the  year.  Queen  Anne  wished  for  a  juvenile  company 
of  her  own ;  and  on  the  30th  January,  1604,  a  licence 
was  granted  to  Edward  Kirkham  and  his  three  partners 
to  procure  and  train  boys  in  a  company  to  be  called 
**The  Children  of  the  Revels  to  the  Queen,"  and  to 
exercise  them  in  playing  at  the  theatre  of  Blackfriars 
and  elsewhere.*  The  children  were  to  be  engaged  by 
contract,  as  the  Queen  could  not  exercise  the  preroga- 
tive of  impressment.  About  the  same  time  it  was  pro- 
vided that  every  play  should  be  submitted  to  Mr. 
Samuel  Daniel,  Groom  of  the  Chambers  to  the  Queen, 
and  by  a  fresh  appointment  Master  of  Her  Majesty's 
Children  of  the  Revels.  Daniel  was  not  an  official 
court-poet ;  but  he  was  universally  respected  as  a  poet 
and  historian,  and,  in  the  popular  estimation,  without 

^  Tempest,  iv.  i,  76-9.  >  Prinled  in  Collier,  Annais,  u  355. 


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476    PRODUCTION  OF   **THE  TEMPEST" 

any  salary  or  butt  of  sack,  he  took  rank  after  Spenser 
^'as  the  best  of  the  laureates/'^  He  entered  on  his 
duty  without  a  moment's  delay ;  for,  according  to  the 
treasurer's  accounts  among  the  Rawlinson  MSS.  in  the 
Bodleian  Library,  the  council  of  the  24th  of  February, 
1605,  issued  a  warrant  for  the  payment  of  twenty  marks, 
''and  by  way  of  his  Highnesses  reward  20  nobles ;  in 
all  the  sum  of  ;£20,"  to  Samuel  Daniel  and  Henry 
Evans  for  a  play  performed  before  the  King  on  New 
Year's  Day,  and  for  another  performed  two  evenings 
later  by  the  "Queen's  Majesties  Children  of  the 
Revels." 

We  have  no  list  of  the  Queen's  company  at  Black- 
friars.  It  is  conjectured  that  Nat.  Field  was  retained ; 
but  Ostler,  Day,  and  Underwood  migrated  in  course  of 
time  to  the  Globe — Underwood,  as  we  have  seen,  in 
or  before  1609.  The  boys  still  serving  in  the  choir 
of  the  Chapel  Royal  were  debarred  from  attendance. 
Mr.  G.  Chalmers,  in  his  Farther  Account  of  the  Early 
English  StagCj  was  positive  that  Field  became  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Revels  company  when  he  left  the  chapel,* 
and  when  that  company  was  formed,  he  was  in  his 
seventeenth  year.  It  is  also  reasonable  to  suppose  that 
William  Barkstead  belonged  to  the  same  house.  We 
first  hear  of  him  in  1609,  ^^  an  actor  in  Jonson's  Silent 
Woman  at  Whitefriars,  after  the  Blackfriars  Theatre 
had  been  taken  over  by  the  King's  men,  and  some  of 
the  children  had  been  dismissed  from  the  Queen's  first 
company.  Field  and  Barkstead  took  the  leading  parts, 
Field,  then  about  twenty-two  years  old,  probably  play- 

^  His  ^'laureateship"  was,  as  Malone  first  suggested,  an  informal 
office.  Alexander  Chalmers,  in  the  life  prefixed  to  his  edition  of  Daniel 
in  TTie  Works  of  the  English  Poets,  vol.  iii.,  quotes  an  epigram  by 
Charles  FitzGef&ey  (1575  ?-i638),  the  author  of  JDraie  (1596),  beginning 
**  Spenserum  si  quis  nostrum  velit  esse  Maronem,  Tu,  Daniele,  mihi  Naso 
Britannus  eris."  Fuller  bears  testimony  to  his  twofold  excellence  as  an 
"  exquisite  poet  .  .  .  also  a  judicious  historian." 

^  Chalmers,  in  Boswell's  Mal<mey  iil  510. 


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CHILDREN  OF  THE  QUEEN'S   REVELS    477 

ing  the  title  character  of  Epicoene,  the  Silent  Woman. 
Barkstead,  called  **a  young  gentleman  almost  of  age," 
must  have  been  nearly  two  years  younger,  though  he 
had  published  his  poem  of  Mirrha  in  1607.^  He 
worked  with  Lewis  Machin,  some  of  whose  eclogues 
were  appended  to  the  poem.  Four  years  afterwards 
Barkstead  brought  out  another  poem  on  the  popular 
subject  of  Irene — Hiren;  or^  the  Faire  Greeke.  He  has 
been  credited  with  at  least  a  share  in  The  Insatiate 
Countess^  ascribed  to  Marston  in  the  editions  of  1613 
and  163 1,  but  not  included  in  his  collected  works  of 
1633.2  Mr.  Payne  Collier  traced  some  of  Barkstead's 
engagements  from  entries  in  the  Dulwich  MSS.,  show- 
ing that  he  joined  Prince  Henry's  players,  afterwards 
known  as  the  Prince  Palatine's  company,  and  in  161 5 
joined  a  partnership  at  Alleyne's  Rose  on  Bankside,  a 
house  which  up  to  that  time  had  been  devoted  to  bear- 
baiting  and  similar  sports.^ 

Among  the  principal  comedians  in  The  Silent  Woman 
were  also  Giles  Cary  and  William  Penn,  and  next  to 
them  Hugh  Atwell ;  the  list  also  containing  the  names 
of  Richard  Allen,  John  Smith,  and  John  Blaney.^ 
William  Penn  was  a  player  of  some  distinction.  He 
was  one  of  the  Prince's  company  at  the  Fortune,  and 
joined  the  new  company  at  the  Hope  on  Bankside, 
where  room  was  found  for  a  stage  alongside  of  the 
bear-pit  and  bull-ring.  He  was  promoted  into  the 
King's  service  in  1629,  the  Lord  Chamberlain's  accounts 

^  Mirrha^  the  Mother  of  Adonis ^  or  Lusts  Prodigies ^  Stationers' 
Register,  12  Nov.  1607. 

*  Mr.  Kemble,  according  to  the  Bicgraphia  Dramaticaf  possessed  a  copy 
with  the  name  of  Barkstead,  as  the  author,  on  the  tiUe  pa^e ;  and  Mr. 
Payne  Collier  mentions  other  copies  inscribed  with  memoranda  to  the  same 
effect  {Memoirs  of  Actors,  p.  xxx.  note  i).  See  A.  W.  Ward,  op,  cit., 
ii.  481.  Fleay,  u,s,,  ii.  80-1,  supposes  that  Barkstead  condensed  Thg 
Insatiate  Countess  from  a  tragedy  and  comedy  already  existing. 

'  Collier,  u.s.,  p.  xxx.  note  2. 

*  In  the  list:  "Gil.  Carie ;  Will.  Pen;  Hug.  Attawel ;  Ric  AUin," 
etc. 


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478    PRODUCTION  OF   "THE  TEMPEST" 

showing  that  he  received  the  usual  two  years'  livery  : 
"four  yards  of  bastard  scarlet  for  a  cloak,  and  a  quarter 
yard  of  crimson  velvet  for  the  capes."  Of  Smith  and 
Allen  little  seems  to  be  known.  Blaney  was  one  of 
the  actors  at  the  Red  Bull,  before  the  old-fashioned 
house  in  the  inn-yard  was  taken  over  by  the  Queen's 
servants.  Cary,  and  probably  Atwell,  were  members  of 
the  Prince  Palatine's  company,  and  were  both  engaged 
by  Alleyne  as  members  of  his  new  troupe  at  the 
Rose. 

The  boys  who  acted  in  The  Silent  Woman,  with 
possible  exceptions  one  way  or  the  other,  may  be  taken 
as  representing  the  Children  of  Her  Majesty's  Revels, 
who  continued  the  traditions  of  the  Children  of  the 
Chapel  at  Blackfriars.  They  occupied  the  theatre  from 
1603  ^^11  1608.  In  the  winter  of  1604  took  place  their  un- 
lucky performance  of  Jonson,  Chapman,  and  Marston's 
Eastward'Hoj  which  was  printed  in  the  following 
spring.^  The  King,  as  is  well  known,  ordered  certain 
passages  to  be  cancelled,  at  the  complaint  of  Sir  James 
Murray,  as  libels  on  the  Scottish  nobility.  The  joint 
authors  were  brought  before  the  Star  Chamber :  there 
was  a  likelihood,  as  Jonson  told  Drummond,  "that  they 
should  then  have  had  their  ears  cut  and  noses "  ;  and 
it  was  only  upon  their  submission  that  His  Majesty 
granted  a  pardon.  The  play,  with  the  necessary 
omissions,  was  acted  before  James  I.  in  1614.^  About 
the  same  time,  the  children  presented  a  play  by 
Marston,  Cocledemqy;  or,  the  Dutch  Courtesan.  This 
was  one  of  the  plays  selected  in  16 13  for  the  entertain- 
ment of  the  Princess  Elizabeth  at  Whitehall.     Lang- 

^  Fleay,  m.^.,  ii.  8i  :  **The  date  of  production  lies  between  that  of 
Wesiward'Hot  ist  Nov.  1604,  and  of  Northward-Hoy  early  in  1605." 
See  also  Collier,  Annals,  i.  356. 

*  The  play  is  printed  as  modified  in  Dodsley,  OU  Plays,  ed.  1825, 
iv.  183-280.  For  the  story  of  Jonson's  imprisonment,  with  its  leg^endary 
details,  see  id,,  p.  189,  note,  and  Aubrey,  Brief  Lives,  ed.  A.  Clark,  1898, 


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PLAYS  ACTED  AT  BLACKFRIARS,  1608-8   479 

baine  describes  it  as  a  comedy  several  times  presented 
at  the  Blaclrfriars,  by  the  Children  of  the  Queen's 
Majesty's  Revels,  and  printed  in  quarto  in  1605.^  He 
thought  ,that  the  collection  called  Les  Contes  du  Monde 
was  the  origin  of  the  light-fingered  heroine's  pranks, 
**and  cheating  Mrs.  Mulligrub,  the  Vintner's  wife,  of 
the  goblet  and  salmon."  Another  version  of  the  same 
story  is  to  be  found  in  the  little  novel  of  the  Doctor  of 
Laws,  in  Painter's  Palace  of  Pleasure. 

Marston  supplied  the  house  with  popular  plays,  such 
as  Parasitaster,  better  known  as  The  Fawn.^  About 
the  same  time  he  gave  them  The  Wonder  of  Women^ 
or  the  Tragedy  of  Sophonisba^  a  musical  piece,  from 
which  Malone  collected  many  valuable  directions.* 
Chapman  supplied  the  Children  with  the  classical  piece 
known  as  All  Fools ^^  which  may  have  appeared, 
in  the  list  of  pieces  acted  at  Whitehall  in  1613,  as 
A  Knot  of  Fools;  and  later,  they  acted  his  Conspiracy 
of  Charles  Duke  of  Byron.  ^ 

In  the  introductory  note  to  the  present  chapter  we 
have  hinted  that  The  Tempest  possibly  may  have  been 
produced  at  Blackfriars  (luring  the  boys'  tenancy  of 
the  theatre.  The  date  has  always  been  a  matter  of 
dispute,  and  is  not  in  itself  of  great  importance.  But 
the  occasion  of  the  play  is  of  real  interest,  as  showing 
some  glimpse  of  the  poet's  own   design.     We  may 


^  Fleay,  i^.f.,  ii.  77,  thinks  that  The  Dutch  Courtesan  ''was  produced 
originally"  by  the  Children  "when  they  were  the  Chapel  children  of 
Queen  Elizabeth"  (sic), 

^  Fleay,  id,,  ii.  79,  acted  ''undoubtedly  in  1604." 

'  Fleay,  ibid.,  thinks  that  this  play  (printed  1606)  was  acted  by  the 
Chapel  Children  before  the  plague  and  change  of  company. 

*  The  title  is  "  Al  Fooles.  A  Comedy ;  presented  at  the  Black  Fryers 
and  lately  before  his  Majestie  .  .  .  1605." 

^  Norihward'Ho,  in  which  Chapman  was  satirised  under  the  name  of 
Bellamont,  and  his  French  tragedies  alluded  to,  has  a  reference  to 
stage  music,  and  possibly  to  the  performance  of  this  play  at  the  Black- 
friars. "  I  .  .  .  shall  take  some  occasion,  about  the  music  of  the  fourth 
act,  to  step  to  the  French  king"  (iv.  i).     See  also  supra,  p.  462,  note  3. 


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48o    PRODUCTION   OF   **THE   TEMPEST" 

connect  it  with  the  marriage  of  Lord  Essex  in  January, 
1606,  and  the  fame  at  once  accorded  to  Jonson's  Masque 
of  Hymen,  as  well  as  with  the  recent  discoveries  in 
New  England,  and  the  hope  of  restoring  the  lost  colony 
in  Virginia.     If  this  be  granted,  we  may  assume  that 
the  production  of  The  Tempest  at  Blackfriars,  alluded 
to  by  Dryden,  took  place  in   1606.     If  the  boys,  to 
whom  the  piece  would  be  entirely  suitable,  produced 
it,  it  could  not  have  been  acted  by  them  at  Blackfriars 
later  than  the  early  part  of  i6o8.     We  already  have 
referred  to  the  migration   to  Whitefriars.     Early  in 
1608,  the  Queen's  company  at  Blackfriars  was  broken 
up,  and  the  boys  dismissed,  by  Philip  Herbert,  Earl 
of  Montgomery,  as  Chamberlain  of  the  Household. 
This  appears  from  a  letter  from  Sir  Thomas  Lake  to 
the  Earl  of  Salisbury,  dated  the  nth  of  March,  1607-8, 
now  among  the  domestic  state  papers  in  the  Public 
Record  Office.^   This  document  dealt  with  various  cases 
of  misconduct  which  had  occurred  in  the  theatres,  more 
especially  in  connection   with  Welsh  mines.      ''His 
Majesty  was  pleased  with  what  your  lordship  adverteth 
concerning  the   committal   of  the   players  that   have 
offended  in  the  matter  of  France,  and  commands  me 
to  signify  to  your  lordship  that  for  the  others  who  have 
offended  in  the  matter  of  the  Mines,  and  other  lewd 
words,  which  is  the  children  of  Blackfriars,  then  though 
he  signified  his  mind  to  your  lordship  by  my  lord  of 
Montgomery,  yet  I  should  repeat  it  again:  that  his 
lordship  had  vowed  they  should  never  play  more,  but 
should  for  it  beg  their  bread,  and  he  would  have  his 
vow  performed :  and  therefore  my  lord  Chamberlain  by 
himself,  or  your  lordship  at  this  table,  should  take  order 
to  dissolve  them,  and  to  punish  the  matter  besides." 
In  the  sequel,  another  company  was  formed  under  the 
old  title,  as  "the  Children  of  her  Majesty's  Revels," 
sometimes  called  the  ''Children  of  Whitefriars,"  from 

^  Dotn,  State  Papers  (Jas.  I. ),  vol.  xxxi. ,  no.  73. 


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THE  CHILDREN  OF  THE   REVELS    481 

their  occupation  of  the  private  house  near  the  Temple.  ^ 
We  cannot  tell  how  many  of  the  Blackfriars  boys  were 
dismissed  *'to  beg  their  bread";  but,  from  the  cast 
of  The  Silent  Womafij  we  have  seen  that  several  new 
names  appeared  at  once  in  the  list  of  the  Queen's 
Children  of  the  Revels.  The  Blackfriars  theatre  was 
given  over  to  the  King's  company,  who  acted  there 
when  the  Globe  happened  to  be  closed. 


VI 

THB   DISPUTE   OF    1635   BETWEEN   PROPRIETORS   AND   ACTORS 
AT  THE  GLOBE  AND  BLACKFRIARS 

Mr.  Halliwell-Phillipps  printed  a  curious  series  of 
documents  about  Blackfriars,^  embodying  a  statement 
which  gained  no  credit  at  the  time  when  it  was  made, 
and  bears  upon  its  face  a  number  of  obvious  errors.  In 
1635  there  was  a  dispute  about  the  profits  of  the  Globe 
and  Blackfriars.  There  was  a  lease  of  the  former  made 
in  1619,  with  about  five  years  still  to  run,  and  another 
lease  of  the  private  house  made  about  1620,  with  four 
years  to  run.  There  was  no  lawsuit,  or  anything  in  the 
nature  of  litigation.  The  matter  was  referred  to  the 
summary  decision  of  the  Earl  of  Pembroke  and  Mont- 
gomery, as  Chamberlain  of  the  Household.  The  peti- 
tions and  answers  were  kept  among  the  official  MSS. 
of  the  Lord  Chamberlain's  office  at  St.  James'  Palace, 
but  are  now  preserved  among  the  domestic  state  papers 
at  the  Public  Record  Office.  Robert  Benfield,  with 
other  actors  in  the  King's  company,'  petitioned  for  a 
share  of  the  profits,  which  they  wished  to  buy  from 
some  of  the  lessees  who  were  neither  actors  nor  em- 
ployed in  His  Majesty's  service.     As  far  as  the  Black- 

^  Patent  gfianted  to  Philip  Rosseter,  Jan.  4,  t6o9-ia  See  Collier, 
AnnalSy  i.  372.  "  «.*.,  i.  312-19^ 

'  The  co-petitioners  were  Heliard  Swanston  and  Thoouts  PoUard. 
2  I 


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482    PRODUCTION  OF   **THE  TEMPEST" 

friars  house  was  concerned^  they  wished  only  to  pur- 
chase at  a  fair  price  an  extra  one-eighth  share  belong- 
ing to  the  actor  John  Shanks.     Another  eighth  share 
belonged  at  that  time  to  Cuthbert  Burbage,  brother  of 
Richard ;   the  remaining  fractions  belonged  to  Mrs. 
Winifred   Burbage,    Richard's  widow,^  and  William, 
son  of  Richard  and  Winifred.     The  five  other  shares 
belonged  to  Robinson,  Taylor,   Lowin,  Condell,  and 
Underwood  respectively.     The  complaint  was  that  the 
lessees  or  housekeepers  were  only  six  in  number  to 
the  actors'  nine ;  but  the  minority  had  a  full  half  of  the 
receipts  for  boxes  and  galleries  in  both  houses,  and  of 
the  tiring-house  door  at  the  Globe.     The  actors  had  the 
other  half,  with  the  outer  doors :  yet  out  of  their  frac- 
tional profits  they  had  to  find  the  wages  of  hired  men 
and  boys,  the  music,  lights,  and  so  forth,  beside  the 
extraordinary  charge  **  which  the  actors  are  wholly  at 
for  apparel  and  poets."    John  Shanks,  in  reply,  made 
out  a  good  case  for  himself,  as  having  spent  much 
money  in  finding  boys  as  apprentices.*    Cuthbert  Bur- 
bage  joined  with  his  sister-in-law  Winifred  and  her  son 
William  in  a  rambling  statement,  to  which  the  Lord 
Chamberlain  seems  to  have  paid  little  regard.     There 
were  evidently  several  mistakes  in  the  old  stories,  which 
Cuthbert  tried  to  recollect,  about  what  his  father  had 
done  under  Queen  Elizabeth  and  early  in  the  reign  of 
King  James.     The  elder  Burbage,  they  said,  had  been 
a  player  when  young,  and  became  the  first  builder  of 

^  Mrs.  Richard  Burbage  had  married  a  second  time,  and  was  now 
Mrs.  Robinson.  Her  husband  is  mentioned  by  the  actors  in  their  second 
petition  (printed  by  Collier,  u,s,,  i.  313)  as  a  housekeeper  in  right  of  his 
wife.  He  has  been  identified  conjecturally  with  the  actor  Richard 
Robinson,  mentioned  by  Ben  Jonson,  The  Devil  is  an  Ass,  ii.  3. 

^  Printed  u,s,,  i.  316.  Shanks  speaks  of  himself  as  one  "  who  hath  still 
of  his  owne  purse  supplyed  the  company  for  the  service  of  his  Majesty 
with  boyes,  as  Thomas  Pollard,  John  Thompson  deceased  (for  whome  hee 
payed  40  /f)  .  .  .  and  at  this  time  maintaines  three  more  for  the  sayd 
service."  As  Pollard  was  one  of  the  complainants,  there  was  scMue 
additional  point  in  this  apology. 


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DISPUTE  AMONG  KING'S  PLAYERS    483 

playhouses.  He  built  the  Theatre  at  Shoreditch,  and 
afterwards  the  Globe  on  Bankside.  ''  Now  for  the 
Blackfriers,"  wrote  Cuthbert,  **that  is  our  inheritance  ; 
our  father  purchased  it  at  extreame  rates,  and  made  it 
into  a  playhouse  with  great  charge  and  troble ;  which 
after  was  leased  out  to  one  Evans,  that  first  sett  up  the 
boyes  commonly  called  the  Queenes  Majesties  Children 
of  the  Chapell.  In  process  of  time,  the  boyes  growing 
up  to  bee  men,  which  were  Underwood,  Field,  Ostler, 
and  were  taken  to  strengthen  the  King's  service ;  and 
the  more  to  strengthen  the  service,  the  boyes  dayly  wear- 
ing out,  it  was  considered  that  house  would  bee  as  fitt 
for  ourselves,  and  soe  purchased  the  lease  remaining  from 
Evans  with  our  money,  and  placed  men  players,  which 
were  Hemings,  Condall,  Shakspeare  &c.  And  Richard 
Burbage,  who  for  thirty-five  yeeres  paines,  cost  and 
labour,  made  meenes  to  leave  his  wife  and  children 
some  estate,  and  out  of  whose  estate  soe  many  of  other 
players  and  their  families  have  beene  mayntained,  these 
new  men,  that  were  never  bred  from  children  in  the 
King's  service,  would  take  away  with  oathes  and 
menaces  that  wee  shall  be  forced  and  that  they  will  not 
thank  us  for  it ;  soe  that  it  seemes  they  would  not  pay 
us  for  what  they  would  have  or  wee  can  spare,  which, 
more  to  satisfie  your  honour  then  their  threatening 
pride,  wee  are  for  ourselves  willing  to  part  with  a  part 
betweene  us,  they  paying  according  as  ever  hath  beene 
the  custome  and  the  number  of  yeeres  the  lease  is  made 
for."  The  document  concludes  with  a  reiteration  of  the 
deserts  of  the  Burbages,  and  an  appeal  that  Richard 
Burbage's  widow  should  not  be  left  to  starve  in  her  old 
age,  which,  in  face  of  the  fact  that  she  was  married 
again,  loses  a  little  of  its  pathos. 

It  is  obvious  that  there  are  gaps  in  the  wording  as 
well  as  the  sense ;  ^  but  the  statements  are  preserved 

^  €,g,  the  sentence  beginning'  **  And  Richard  Burbage/'  in  which  the 
words  "  whose  estate"  are  governed  by  <' out  of,"  and  at  the  same  time 
are  transferred  icard  trivtaw  as  an  object  to  the  verb  in  the  next  sentence. 


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484    PRODUCTION  OF   "THE  TEMPEST" 

only  in  what  appears  to  be  a  clerk's  transcript.  Cuth* 
bert  Burbage  evidently  confused  two  separate  leases, 
one,  relating  to  the  Blackfriars  house,  for  a  term  of 
twenty-one  years  from  1597,  ^^^  another,  relating  to 
the  Globe,  for  twenty-one  years  from  1598.  To  the 
renewal  of  these  leases  we  already  have  alluded.^  The 
statement  that  one  Evans  "first  set  up**  the  Children 
of  Queen  Elizabeth's  Chapel  can  easily  be  shown  to  be 
a  mistake ;  but  one  Henry  Evans  seems  to  have  been 
the  lessee  from  the  building  of  the  theatre  until  1604, 
when  the  Children  of  the  Queen's  Revels  were  formed 
into  a  company.  Mn  Shanks,  however,  proved  that 
he  had  offered  to  sell  his  part  of  the  shares  on  fair 
terms;  and  the  Lord  Chamberlain  ordered  Sir  John 
Firett,  Sir  Henry  Herbert,  Master  of  the  Revels,  and 
his  own  solicitor,  Mr.  Bedingfield,  to  fix  an  equitable 
price  for  the  shares  and  to  make  a  final  agreement. 

^  In  Lord  Pembroke's  decision,  printed  u,s.f  i.  313,  we  read  "for  the 
fower  yeeres  rema3ming  of  the  lease  of  the  house  in  Blackfriers,  and  for 
five  yeeres  in  that  of  the  Globe." 


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INDEX 


N.B.— Thb  iudidsed  figures  refer  to  pages  where  the  person,  place,  or  other  subject 
u  mentiooed  in  the  footnotes  alone. 


Abbot,  George,  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, 309,  426,  430,  435 
Abel,  Mr.,  of  Nayland,  Suffolk,  321 
Abergavenny,    Bieiron.      See    Beau- 
champ,  William,  et<:. 
Abingdon,    Henry,    of   the    Chapel 

Royal,  469 
Abington,  Northants,  267,  and  see 

Barnard,  Baldwin,  etc. 
Acarete  de  Biscay,  Voyage  of,  quoted, 

366 
Acton,  Middlesex,  190,  191, 225,  342, 

and  see  Hall,  John  (2),  and  Rev. 

WUUam 
Acts  of  the  Apostles,  quoted,  381-2 
Addison,  Joseph,  anecdote  of,  57 
Adepts  in  magic,  3S6-7 
Admiral,  the  Lord :  his  players.    See 

Howard,  Sir  Charles 
Acgas  or  Agas,  Ralph :  his  map  of 

London,  192-3 
Agnes,  the  name  and  its  variants, 

28-30 
Agrippina.    See  Cologne 
^ue  m  seventeenth  century,  308 
Aicher,  Otto,  Hortus  InscripHonum 

of,  quoted,  229,  234 
Ainsworth,  WilUam   Harrison,  Jack 

Sheppardy  quoted,  ig2 
Albans,  Viscount   St.     See  Bacon, 

Sir  Francis 
Alcester,  Warwickshire,  67,  68,  i6j 
Alchemist^  The,    Seejovaon,  Ben 
Alcock,  William,  of  Tiddington,  133 


Aldersgate  Street,  E.C.,  309,  301, 

and  see  Bell   Inn  and  Pembrdke 

House 
Ale-Conner  or  Ale -Taster,  office  of, 

78-9 
Ale,  English,  282,  283 
Alexander,    Sir    William,    Earl    of 

Stirling,  his  plays,  443 
Alfonso  1.,  King  of  Naples  and  the 

Two  Sicilies,  375,  386 
Alfonso  II. ,  King  of  Naples,  etc. ,  jSj 
Algiers,  pirate-ships  of,  287,  288 
Alicante,  Howell's  visit  to,  287, 288 ; 

wine  of,  259 
Allen,  Richard,  actor,  477,  478 
Allen,  Thomas,  History  of  London 

referred  to,  2^4 
Alleyne,    Edward,    actor  -  manager, 

477.  478 
All  Fools,    Su  Chapman,  George 
AUsoppe,  John,  of  St  Helen's  parish, 

210 
AWs   Well  that  Ends  WeU,      See 

Shakespeare,  William  (i) 
Almshouse  of  Stratford  Guild,  86 
Altham,  Richard,  of  Gra^s  Inn,  201 
Alvechurch,  Worcestershire,  163 
Alveston,  Warwickshire,  331,  132 
Amapaia,  Province  of,  357 
Amazons,  legends  concerning,  360-1 
Amends   for    Ladies,      See    Field, 

Nathaniel 
Amersham,  Bucks,  189 
Andrew  by  the  Wardrobe,  Church  of 

St,  E.C.,  205,  452 


485 


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486 


INDEX 


Andrew's  Hill,  St.,  E.C.,  452 
Andrew  Undershaft,  Church  of  St., 

E.C.,  212 

Angel  Inn,  Bishopsgate,  E.C.,  211 
Anders,  Bishop  of.     Su  Le  Maire, 

Guillaume 
Anjou,  English  conquest  of,  336-7 
Anjou,  eauivalent  for  Angers,  152,  /fj 
Anne,  Church    of  St.,   Blac^friars, 

E.C.,  452,  453,  456;  parish  of,  181 
Anne,    Guild   of  St.,    at    Knowle, 

Warwicks.,  112 
Anne  of  Denmark,  Queen-Consort  of 

James  I.,  240,  401,  402,  403,  410, 

411,  413.  414.  424,  429,  456.  475 
Antelope  Inn  at  Oxford,  300 
AtUhotogia  Palaiina^  quoted,  241 
Anthony,  legend  of  St.,  366 
Antilles^  fftsioire  Naiurelk  des  Iks. 

See  Poincy,  L.  de 
Anti-Masques,  407,  408,  412 
Antimony,  medical  uses  of,  305 
Antony  and  Cleopatra,    Su  Shake- 
speare, William  (i) 
Antwerp,  Sir  Thomas  More  at,  208 
Apocrypha,  Shakespeare's  references 

to  the,  224 
ApoUonius    Rhodius,    Scholiast    on 

Argonautica  of,  quoted,  380 
''Apples    of    Love,"    synonym    for 

tomatoes,  202 
Appleyard,  Sir  Mathew,  his  r^ment, 

299 
**  Apreeware,"  122,  and  su  Ypres 
Aquafortis,  used  by  Sir  W.  Ralegh, 

•    358 

Arber,  Prof.  Edward,  F.S.A.,  quoted, 

ao8 
Archenfield,  Herefordshire,  local  cus- 
toms of  be(^uest,  228 
Arch-Sewer,  title  of  Elector  Palatine, 

423 
Arden,  Agnes,  second  wife  of  Robert 

(I),  116,  119,  120,  122 
Arden,  Alice,  daughter  of  Robert  (i), 

116,  119,  120 
Arden,  Edward,  321 
Arden,  Forest  of,  163-4;  derivation 

of  name,  165,  320 
Arden,  Mary,  daughter  of  Robert  (i). 

Su  Shakespeare,  Mary 
Arden,    Robert  (i),   grandfather  of 

Shakespeare,   25,   112,    115,   xi6, 

117;  his  will,  1 19-20;  inventory 

of  his  property,  120-2 
Arden,  Robert  (i),  of  Park  Hall,  son 

of  Edward,  321 
Argier,   old  form  of  Algiers,   286; 


Castle  of»  sham  sea-fight  of,  at 

Lambeth,  427-8 
Ariel,  Josej^  Hunter's  theories  as  to, 

390-1 ;  part  of,  on  stage,  474-5 
Ariosto,  Ludovico,  Orlando  Furioso 

of,  quoted,  379,  and  su  Harington, 

Sir  John 
Aristolochia  (birthwort),  medical  em- 
ployment of,  300 
Armstrong,  Edward,  Charles  K,  by, 

referred  to,  361 
"Aroint  thee,"  meaning  of,  156 
Arraignment   of  Paris^   The,     Su 

Peele,  George 
Arromaia,  Province  of,  357,  358,  359, 

"Arthur's  Show,"  196 
"Articulate   Lady,"  the,  410,  and 

su  Devereuz,  Frances 
Arundel,    Earl   of.      Su   Howard, 

Thomas  (i) 
Arundel,  Sir  William,  136 
Arvi  River,  in  Guiana,  362 
Asbies,  Robert  Arden's  farm  of,  116, 

"9.349 
Ascham,  R<^er,  Toxophibes  of,  quoted, 

292 
Ashbury,  Berks,  Cromlech  at,  380 
Ashfeld,  Alice,  prioress  of  St  Helen's, 

Bishopsfi^te,  206 
Ashmole,  Elias,  M.D.,  quoted,  247 
Ashmolean  Museum,  artificial  dragon 

in,  299 
Assessment   of  St.   Helen's  parish, 

E.C,  in  1598,  213-20 
Assize  of  Bread  and  Ale  at  Stratford, 

77-9 
Aston  Cantlow,  Warwickshire,  parish 

of,  115,  Ii9»  120,  132 
Aston,  Tony,  194 

Astrology  in  medical  profession,  306 
As  You  Like  It,    Su  Shakespeare, 

William  (I) 
Atherstone-on-Stour,   Warwickshire, 

345 
Atoica,  River,  in  Guiana,  363 
Atwell,  Hugh,  actor,  477,  478 
Aubrey,  John,  quotations  from,  46, 
47.  48.  50.  184.  i85t  iy>-i»  260. 
3S6,  301,  302,  306,  312,  3j8,  343-8 
passim ;   references  to,   81,  478 ; 
Rodd  on,  328 
Auchmuty,  James  and  John,  404 
Aurea  Legenda.   Su  Voragine,  Jaco- 
bus de 
Aurelio  and  Isabella^  romance  of,  384 
Austen,  James,  of  St  Martin  Out- 
wich,  E.C.,  211 


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487 


Avon,  River,  in  Warwickshire,  150^ 
153 ;  meaning  of  name,  320 

Aylesbaiy,  Bucks.,  185,  188,  330; 
vale  of,  186 

B 

Bacharach,  wines  of,  285 
"  Back-bare,"  sporting  term,  169 
Bacon,    Sir   Francis,  Viscomit    St. 
Albans,  195,  198,  201,  338,  432, 
433.  434;  Essays  quoted,  194-5. 
4".  413.  431.  433  5  bis  Masqus  of 
Flowers ,  406-8 
Bad  beginning  makes  a  good  endings  A, 

anonymous  play,  435,  438 
Badger,  George,  of  Stratford,  74,  75 
Bagenal  or  Bagnal,  Sir  Henry,  295 
Bagley,  Edward,  citizen  of  London, 

269,  271 
Bagley  Wood,  Berks.,  story  of  Dutch- 
man in,  310 
Bagpipes,  story  of    their  effect  on 

wolves,  294-5 
Baheire,  Robert,  of  Blackfriars,  456 
Bailiff,  office  of,  at  Stratford,  103-4 
Baker,  Ellen.  .S^^  Shakespeare,  Ellen 
Baker,  Mrs.,  of  Shottery,  324 
Baker,  Oliver,  of  Stratford,  100 
Balcony  in  private  theatres,  459-60 
"  Balk,"  suDstantive  and  verb,  mean- 
ing of,  141 
Ball,  Rev.  Richard,  of  St.  Helen's, 

Bishop%ate,  213 
Ballard,  George,  letter  of  Mr.  Brome 

to.  Quoted,  339-40 
Balsali,  Temple,  Warwickshire,  <?/, 

no 
Balshall,   Thomas,   D.D.,   Dean   of 

Stratford,  81,  82 
Banbury,  Oxon.,  iS^y  188 
Banister,    Gilbert,    of    the    Chapel 

Royal,  ^ 
Barbary,  potatoes  in,  203 
Barber  Sui]g;eons'  Hall,  E.C.,  301 
Barford  Brid^,  Warwickshire,  iSS 
Barkstead,  William,  actor-dramatist, 
476-7 ;  his  ITiren  referred  to,  477 
Barlichway,  Hundred  of,  Warwick- 
shire, 64,  7^9 
Barnacle  geese,  150 
Barnard,  Baldwin,  Esq.,  of  Abington, 

Northants,  267 
Barnard,  Dttme  Elizabeth,  grand- 
daughter of  Shakespeare,  30,  60, 
139,  140,  225,  226,  227,  231,  243, 
244,  245,  246,  247,  248,  256,  257, 
265.  266,  267,  268,  269,  270,  271 ; 
and  see  Barnard,  Sir  John ;  Hall, 


John  and   Susanna;   and   Nash, 
Thomas 
Barnard,  Eleanor.   .S;^  Cotton,  Elea- 
nor 
Barnard,    Elizabeth.      See   Gilbert, 

Elizabeth 
Barnard,  Mary.    See  Higgs,  Mary 
Barnard,  Sir  John,  Bart.,  of  Abing- 
ton, 267,  208,  269,  270,  271 
Barriers  at  Earl  of  Essex's  wedding, 

419-20,  and  see  Jonson,  Ben 
Bartholomew  Fair.    See  Jonson,  Ben 
"Bartholomew's  Day,  Black,"  262 
Barton-on-the-Heath,  Warwickshire, 

116,  168 
Basel,  Dance  of  Death  at,  88 
Basing,  William,  Dean  of  St.  Paul's, 

212 
Bassel,  Laurence  and  Peter,  of  St 

Helen's,  Bishopsgate,  217 
Bastard  wine,  259,  286 
Bath,  Earl  of,  his  players,  09 
Bath,    Lord   Chamberlain  s    players 

at,  99 
Bath,    Municipal    Records,   quoted, 

99.  »oa 

Batlers  at  Oxford  colleges,  340 

•*  Bavarian  pouch,"  366-7 

Bawkes,  Sherrett,  of  St.  Helen's, 
Bishopsgate,  217 

Baxter,  Robert,  actor,  471 

Bean,  Alexander,  intruded  minister 
at  Stratford,  261,  262 

Bear  Inn  at  Stratford,  240,  307 

Bearley,  Warwickshire,  116 

Bearwardens,  companies  of,  99 

Beauchamp,  Ann^  Countess  of  War- 
wick.   See  Neville,  Anne 

Beauchamp,  Henry,  Duke  of  War- 
wick, 336 

Beauchamp,  Richard  (i),  K.G.,  14th 
Earl  of  Warwick,  317,  334.  335-6, 

337 
Beauchamp,    Richard  (2),    Earl   of 

Worcester,  108,  jjd 
Beauchamp,  Thomas  (i),  12th  Earl 

of  Warwick,  334 
Beauchamp,  Thomas  (2),  13th  Earl 

of  Warwick,  334 
Beauchamp,  William,  Baron  Aber- 
gavenny, 108 
Beauchamjps,  monuments  of  the,  at 

Warwick,  330,  334-7 
Beaufort,  Henry,  Cardinal,  Bishop  of 

Winchester,  317-18 
Beaumont,  Francis,  Masque  by,  432, 

433,  and  see  Fletcher,  John 
Bedford,  Duke  of.    See  John 


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488 


INDEX 


Bedford,  Earl  of.  See  Russell,  Sir 
John 

Bedingfield,  Mr.,  s<^lcitor  to  the 
Lord  Chamberlain,  484 

Beer  in  England  and  Germany,  282, 
283 

Beeston,  Christopher,  actor,  48 

Beeston,  Elizabeth,  wife  of  Christo- 
pher, 48 

Beeston,  William,  son  of  Christopher 
and  Elisabeth,  48,  i^y^  passim 

Behren's  Hercjmia  Curicsa  referred 
to,  380 

Belle  Sauvage  Inn,  459 

Bell  Inn,  Aldersgate  Street,  E.C.,  301 

Bell  Inn,  Carter  Lane,  E.C>  4$3>  459 

Bell,  John,  F.RiCS.  Edin.,  his  visit 
to  Stratford,  232 

Benedick  and  Beatrix,  probable  equiv- 
alent of  Muck  Ado,  438,  444-5 

Benfield,  Robert,  actor,  481 

Bentley,  actor,  180 

Bentley,  Justice,  of  Kineton,  33! 

Bentley,  Thomas,  M.D.,  President 
R,CP.,  85-6 

Bergamot  at  Long  Melford,  281 

Berkeley,  Henry,  Baron,  193 

Bermudas,  trials  of  colonists  in,  474 

Bernard,  Charles,  serjeant-surgeon  to 
Queen  Anne,  339,  340 

Bernard  or  Barnard,  Elizabeth,  wife 
of  Robert,  of  Abington,  268 

Bern  wood  Forest,  Bucks.,  186 

Berreo,  Antonio,  Spanish  explorer, 

359i  364 
Bertulf,  King  of  Merda,  71,  72,  73 
Betony,  medical  uses  of,  264 
Bettenham,  Jeremy,  formerly  Reader 

of  Gray's  Inn,  201 
Betterton,  Thomas,  actor,  22, 47, 48, 

5«»57 

Bettis,  Mr.,  chief  shipwright  at  Chat- 
ham, 427 

Bewdley,  Worcestershire,  cap-making 
*t,  325 

Bicester,  Oxon.,  182,  184,  i^,  188 

Bicocca,  Battle  of,  386 

Bidford-on-Avon,  Warwickshire,  67, 
68 

Billesley,  Warwickshire,  37 

Billingsley,  Sir  Henry,  Lord  Mayor 
of  London,  215 

Biographia  Dramatica,  quoted,  477 

Birch,  Samuel,  LL.D.,  D.C.L.,  444, 
448 

Bird,  Dr.,  Linacre  Professor  at  Cam- 
bridge, 239 

Birmingham,  Roman  road  at,  65,  67 


Biscay,  UoweU'>  adventure  in,  294 
Bishopsgate  Within,  Ward  of,  210 
Bishopton,  Warwickshire,  64, 135, 140 
Black  Bull  Inn,  Bishc^i^te  Street, 

E.C.,  210,  213 
"Black  Crosses,"  old  name  for  St. 

Mark's  Day,  24 
Blackfriars,  Liboty  of,  descriptbn 

of,  451-3 
Blackfriars  Theatre,  168,  206,  219, 

450-84  passim 
Blackness,  Masque  of.    See  Jonson, 

Ben 
Blackwater,  Battle  of  the,  295 
Blaney,  John,  actor,  477,  478 
"  Blindcinques,"  nickname  for  class 

of  under|[raduates,  ^5 
Blois,  William  de.  Bishop  of  Worces- 
ter, 76 
Bloodhounds,  varieties  of,  171 
Bloody  Brother,  The,    See  Fletcher, 

John 
"  6loody  hand,"  sporting  term,  169 
Blue  Boar  Inn  at  Oxford,  300 
Bobart,  Jacob,  of  the  Oxford  Physic 

Garden,  299,  300 
Bobart,  Jacob,  jun.,  299 
Bohemia,  King  and  Queen  of    Su 

Frederick  and  Elizabeth  (i) 
"Bolt,"  sporting  term,  167 
Bombards,  462-3 
Bon  Chretien  pears  at  Long  Melford, 

281 
Bond,  William,  of  Crosby  Place,  his 

monument,  209 
Bone-house  at  Qupping  Norton,  184; 

at  Stratford,  81,  230,  304,  341 
Bonnetto,  Rocco,  of  Blackfriars,  458 
Bonvisi,  Antonio,  of  Lucca,  aoft-9 
Booker,  John,  his  "study  of  books," 

247 
Book  of  Common  Prayer,  1 559,  quoted, 

23 
Booth,  Charles,  prompter  at  Drury 

Lane,  56 
Bordeaux,   Scottish   wine-merchants 

at,  284 
Bordesley,  Warwickshire,  priory  of» 

107,  109 
Borsholder,  traditional  duties  of  the, 

"3-4 
Boswell,  Tames,  jun.,  quoted,  384-5, 

400,  462 
Bottom,  Drolls  on  the  subject   of, 

187-8,  445 
"  Bouge  of  Court,"  meaning  of,  ^j 
Bouehton  or  Borton,  William,  curate 

of  Aston  Cantlow,  120 


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INDEX 


489 


Boyd  or  Bowy,  Sergeant,  404 
'*Brach,"  Shakespeare's  use  of  word, 

171,  173 
Brackley,  Viscount   See  Egerton,  Sir 

Thomas 
Braithwaite,  Richard^  81 
Brand,  John,   F.S.A.,  Popular  An- 

tiquitUs  of,  referred  to,  25 
Brandenburg,  Sir  Edward  Walker's 

mission  to,  273-4 
Brandes,  Georg,  VviUiam  Shakespeare  ^ 

by,  referred  to,  253 
Brent,  Sir  Nathaniel,  Vicar-General 

to  Abpw  of  Canterbury,  ipjj 
Bridewell,  452  ;  palace  at,  453 
Bridges,  Rev.  Gabriel,  B.D.,  347 
Bridges,   John>    F.S.A.,   History   of 

Northanis^  quoted,  a68 
Briggen,    Walter,    of    St.    Helen's 

parish,  Bishopsgate,  218 
Bnll,  Bucks.,  186 
Bristol,  Lord  Chamberlain's  players 

tit,  99 ;  Tobacco  trade  at,  200 
Brit  ton,  John,  f.s.a.,  quoted,  21-2 
Broadway,  E.C.,  451 
Broderick,  William,  embroiderer  to 

James  I.,  43^ 
Bromefield,  Alice.  See  Spencer,  Dame 

AUce 
Bromsgrove,  Worcestershire,  163 
Bronchoceles,  367,  and  see  Bavarian 

pouch 
Brooke,  Baron.      See  Greville,  Sir 

Fulke  and  Robert 
Brooke,  Henry,  K.G.,  Baron  Cobham, 

206,  455,  458 
Brooksbank,  Mr,,of  Bucklersbury,  182 
Broom-groves,  146 
Brown,   Rawdon    L.,   Caiahgue   of 

MSS.,  etc.,  quoted,  289 
Browne,  Father,  mentioned  by  Ward, 

240 
Browning,  Robert,  his  Fippa  Fosses 

quoted,  290 
Bruni,  Francesco.  5>«Petrarca,  Fran- 
cesco 
Brunswick,  Duke  of,  424 
Bryan,  Sir  Francis,  453 
Brydges,  Sir  Samuel  E^rton,  444 
Buc,  Buck,  or  Bucke,  Sir  George, 

Master  of  Revels,  443 
Buck,  varieties  of,  170 
Buckingham,  Duke  of.    See  Villiers, 

Sir  George 
Buckinghamshire,  Duke  of.  See  Shef- 
field, John 
Buckinghamshire,    Shakespeare    in, 

essay  on,  referred  to,  180 


Bucklersbury,  x8i,  182, 262, 263,  264 
"Budget,"  meaning  of,  365 
Bulkley,  Elizabeth,  receipt-book  of, 

3 noted,  469 
1-dogs,  172 
Bull  Theatre.    See  Red  Bull  Inn 
Burbage,  Cuthbert,   son  of  James, 

482,  483,  484 
Burbage,  James,  50,  180,  4SI*  453» 

457,482,483      - 
Burbage,  Richard,  son  of  James,  <S, 

198,  226,  464,  472,  474,  432,  483 
Burbage,  William,  son  of  Richard, 

482 
Burbage,  Winifred,  wife  of  Richard. 

See  Robinson,  Winifred 
Burges,  Rev.  Mr.,  of  Sutton  Cold- 
field,  262 
Burghley,    Baron.      See  Cecil,    Sir 

WiUiam 
Burgoine,  Sir  Robert,  of  Wrozall,  1 10 
Burfey,  William,  tract  on  Princess 

Elizabeth's  wedding,  by,  quoted, 

427-3* 
Burman,  Stephen,  of  Rowington,  130 
Burn,  Rev.  Richard,  D.C.L,,  Eccle- 

siasttcal  Law^  quoted,  33-4 
Burnet,  Great,  plant,  where  found, 

192 ;  curative  virtues  of,  265 
Burnet,  Mr.,  of  Stratford,  303,  323 
Burse,  the.     Su  Exchange,  Royal 
Burton,  Robert,  Anatomy  of  Melon- 

chofyt  by,  quoted,  125-6, 153,  310, 

367 
Bury  St.  Edmunds,  Abbey  of,  281, 

282 
Bush,  Paul,  Bishop  of  Bristol,  303, 

304 
Bussy    d*Ambois.     See    Chapman, 

George 
"Busy-less,"  373 
Butcher,  trade  of,  349-50 
Butler,  James,   K.G.,   1st  Duke  of 

Ormonde,  273 
Butler,  Samuel,  author  of  Hudibras^ 

348 
Butler's  Marston,  Warwickshire,  327, 

33^1,  332 
Byron^  Conspiracy  of  Charles^  Duke 
of    See  Chapman,  George. 


Cacodsemon,  use  of  word  in  Shake- 
speare, etc.,  3 1  J- 1 6 
Caesar,  Sir  Julius,  Master  of  Rolls,  150 
Casar^s  Tragedye^  probably  old  form 
oi  Julius  Casar,  439,  442-3 


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490 


INDEX 


Cage,  the,  house  of  Thomas  Qainey 

in  Stratford,  258 
Caius,  John,  M.D.,  tract  on  Briiish 

DogSy  quoted,  17 1-2 
Cala  Croce,  in  island  of  Lampedusa, 

375 
Calderon  de  la  Barca,  Pedro,  BUn 

veng^as,  Mai  of,  quoted,  420 
Caldwall,  Daniel,  letter  of  Howell 

to,  282 
Caldwell,  Florens,  epitaph  on.     See 

Martin's,  St.,  Ludgate,  Church  of 
Calendarium  Gemalogkumy  quoted, 

^3 

Caliban,  Joseph  Hunter  on,  387-8 

C<Ut1uu    See  Cutwode,  Thomas 

Cambridge,  Privy  Council  order  con- 
cerning thatched  rooh  at,  147 

Camden,  William,  Clarenceux  king- 
of-arms,  104;  his  Britannia  (m 
Holland's  translation),  quoted,  94, 
I2S,  t2g,  14s,  183, 1S6,  1S9,  294 

Camomile,  legend  concerning,  313 

Campion,  Thomas,  poet  and  phy- 
siaan.  Masque  by,  402-3;  his 
Masque  of  Frantics  or  Lord^ 
MasquCy  430-1 

Canary  wine,  285 

Cane  tobacco,  200,  466 

Cannibals,  reference  by  Ral^h  to, 
362 

Ca^telupe,  Walter  de.  Bishop  of 
Worcester,  76 

Canterbury  bells,  synonym  for  "lady- 
smock,'^  158 

Cantilupe,  John  de,  of  Snitterfield, 
107-S 

Canton,  heraldic  term,  414,  41$ 

Canuri,  Province  of,  363 

Caora,  River,  in  Guiana,  363 

Capell,  Edward,  editor  of  Shake- 
speare, 41,  51 

Capon,  Barbery,  of  St.  Helen's 
parish,  Bishopsgate,  217 

Captain^  The.    See  Fletcher,  John 

Cardanoy  Cardema^  or  CcurtennOy 
anonymous  play,  438 

Carduus  Benedictus^  reference  to,  by 
Shakespeare,  263 

Carew,  Sir  George,  Earl  of  Totnes, 

333 
Carew,  Joyce,  Countess  of  Totnes, 

^333    _ 

Carew,  Thomas,  poet,  279 

Carey,  Sir  George,  2nd  Baron  Huns- 
don,  son  of  Sir  Henry,  456,  458 

Carey,  Sir  Henry,  K.c,  ist  Baron 
Hunsdon,  Lord  Chamberlain,  455, 


4S6 ;  his  monumoit,  SSS*  4S^i  ^ 
players,  99,  100 
Caribane,  365 

Carichana,  Humboldt  at,  365 
Carleton,  Alice,  sister  of  Sir  Dudley, 

401,  404,  429.  43a 
Carleton,  Sir  Dudley,  Viscount  Dor- 
chester,  letters  by,  quoted,   375, 
414 ;    letters    to,   quoted,   404-6, 
425,  426,  427,  436,  437 ;  and  see 
Chamberlain,    John ;    Lake,    Sir 
Thomas ;  and  Winwood,  Sir  Ralph 
Carline,  Maltese  thistle,  377 
Carlo  Emanuele,  Duke  of  Savoy,  438 
Carnations,  varieties  and  treatment 

of,  162 
Caro,   Di,  page   of  Alfonso    I.    of 

Naples,  375 
Caroli,  River,  in  Guiana,  and  its  Calls, 

358,  362.  363 
Carpenter,   Tenken,   town   clerk    of 

London,  87 
Carr,  Frances.  SIm  Devereux,  Frances 
Carr,  Robert,  Earl  of  Somerset,  398, 

400,  401 
Carte,   Thomas,   historian,   referred 

to,  94 
Carter  Lane,  E.C,  4SI.  45^,  453 
Cartwright,  Rev.  William,  dramatist, 

185 ;  his  Ordinary  referred  to,  261 
Cary,  Giles,  actor,  477,  478 
"Case,  to,"  sporting  term,  167 
Castle,  WUliam,  clerk  of  Stratford 

parish  church,  328,  332-3 
Caterina,  Comaro,  Queen  of  Cyprus, 

290 
CoHUne^  his  Conspiracy,  See  Jonson, 

Ben 
Caviare,  references  to,  260-1 
Cawarden,  Sir  Thomas,   Master   of 

the  Revels,  453,  455,  458 
Cawdrey,  Ralf,  butcher  at  Stratford, 

34»-9 

Cecil,  Sir  Robert,  K.B.,  ist  Earl  of 
Salisbury,  199;  letter  to,  quoted, 
480 ;  and  see  Lake,  Sir  Thomas 

Cecil,  Sir  William,  Baron  Burghley, 

195.  199.  ai9 
Chadshunt,  Warwickshire,  331,  and 

see  Newsham,  Charles 
Chaise-Dieu,  La,  Haute- Loire,  Danse 

Macabre  at,  89 
"  Chaldaean  Philosophy,"  Hunter  on, 

386-7 
Chalgrove  field,  Beds.,  134 
Challenge  ai  Tilt,    See  Jonson,  Ben 
Challoner,  William,  of  Tiddington, 

132.  133 


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INDEX 


491 


Chalmers,  Alexander,  7.S.A.,  quoted, 

42 ;  referred  to,  4^6 
Chalmers,  George,  quoted,  50,  442 ; 

referred  to,  447,  476 
Chamberlain,  Dr.,  of  Westminster, 

quoted,  243 
Chamberlain,  John,  letters  of,  quoted, 

401-2,  404,  405,  406,  425,   426, 

429,  431,  432,  433>  434.  435»  43^. 

437 
Chamberlain,  the  Lord :  his  company 

of  players.     See  Carey,  Sir  Henry 
Chambers,  John,  Bishop  of  Peter- 
borough, 303 
Chambre,  John,  m.d..  Dean  of  St. 

Stephen's,  Westminster,  $03 
Chancery  Lane,  wild  flowers  in,  192 
Chantrev,  Sir  Francis  L.,  sculptor,  at 

Stratford,  232 
Chantries,  Return  of,  1546,  referred 

to,  97 
Chapel  Royal,  Children  of  the,  450, 

464,  469-75.  47S 
Chapel  Royal^  Old  Cheque-Book  of^ 

quoted,  396,  397, 401, 428, 429-30* 

^,  470-1 
Chapman,  George,  dramatist,  47, 432, 

473  5  Ws  All  Fools,  441,  ^J,  479  ; 

Bu55y<VAmbois,  472;  Byron,  Con- 
spiracy of  Charles,  Duke  of,  462 ; 

479;   Eastward' Ho,  su  jonson, 

Ben;    Humorous    Days    Mirth, 

368-9 ;  Masque  by,  performed,  4^2 
Chari  Christ,   Irish  euphemism  for 

wolves,  294 
Charing  Cross,  191 
Charlecote,  near  Stratford-on-Ayon, 

38,  322,  328 
Charles  L,  King  of  England,  272, 

444;  as  heir-apparent,  400,  401, 

427,  429,  431.  434,  436.  438 
Charles  II.,  King  of  England,  439 ; 

plays  in  his  library,  440 
Charles  V.,  Emperor,  and  King  of 

Spain,    287,    si^;    his    visit    to 

London,  453 
Charles  VII.,  King  of  France,  297 
Chfttillon,  Battle  of,  296 
Chaucer,  Geofifrey,  quoted,  175, 453 
Chaworth,  Dr.,  302 
Cheap,  Ward  of,  212 
Cheap,  West,  263 
Cheetah  sent  to  James  I.,  437 
Chepstow  Castle,  Monmouthshire,.?6iP 
Cherry,  Francis,  benefactor  of  Thos. 

Heame,  340 
Cheshire,  hunting  in,  175;  proverb 

used  in,  156 


Chester,    termination    of    Watling 

Street,  66 
Chesterton,  John  de,  lord  of  manor 

of  Stratford,  320 
Chettle,  Henry,  Kind-hartes  Dreame, 

by,  quoted,  52-3 
Chevney,  Sir  Thomas,  K.G.,  Treasurer 

of  the  Household,  453 
Chichele,  Henry,  Archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury, 318 
Chichester,  Collins  the  poet  at,  383 
Child,  Thomas,  of  St.  Helen's  parish, 

Bishopsgate,  211-12 
Children  of  the  Revels,  the  Queen's, 

426,  427,  464,  47i»  473.  47S-«i* 

and  see  Blackfriars  and  Whitefriars 

Theatres 
Chiltem  Hills,  Bucks.,  188 
Chioppines  or  Chapins  at  Venice  and 

elsewhere,  291-2 
Chippenham,  Wilts.,  260 
Chipping  Norton,  Oxon.,  182,  183, 

184 
Choristers  of  Stratford  Church :  their 

order  of  life,  81 
Choughs,  1 5 1-2;  Act  of  Parliament 

for  destruction  of,  152 
Christ  Church,  Oxon.,  performance 

of  Palamon  and  Arcyte  in,  176 
Church-Enstone,  Oxon.,  184 
Church  Entry,  E.C.,  452 
Cibber,  Theophilus,  49 
Cicero,  de  DtvinaHone,  quoted,  joo 
Cinquepace,  408,  and  see  Galliard 
Cioll  or  Sciol,  Cecilia  and  German, 

of  Crosby  Place,  E.C,  209 
City  of  London  Records,  referred  to, 

212 
Clapham,    Surrey,    Samuel    Pepys' 

house  at,  449 
Clare   Market.      See  Tennis   Court 

Theatre 
Clarence,  Duke  of.    See  George 
Clarendon,  Earl  of.    See  Hyde,  Ed- 
ward 
Garet,  259,  260,  265,  284,  and  see 

Bordeaux 
Clary,  purple  and  wild,  192 
Clary,  spirit  of,  used  in  manu£eu:turing 

wines,  285 
Qerkenwell,    Middlesex,    211,    346, 

and  see  Red  Bull  Inn. 
Qifton,  A.  B.,  Cathedral  Church  of 

Lichfield,  by,  ref.  to,  S3^ 
"Qodpate,  Mr.  Justice,*^  328 
Cloister  Court,   Blackfriars,  E.   C, 

I       452 

I  Clopton,  Anne,  wife  of  William,  $33 


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492 


INDEX 


QoptoQ,  Dame  Barbara,  wife  of  Sir 

John  (i),  27a,  273 
Clopton,  £f lantine,  wife  of  Thomas 

Clopton  fiuniij,  116;  their  coat-of- 

arms,  320-1 ;  their  monuments,  82, 

333 ;  their  Suffolk  collaterals,  280. 

Clopton  House,  rebuilding  of,  272 

Clopton,  Sir  Hugh  (i),  of  Qopton, 

Lord  Mayor  of  London,  63,  82, 85, 

95.  "5.  3ao 
Qopton,  Sir  Hug^  (9),  of  Qopton 

(fl.  1742),  60,  269,  272 
Clopton,  Sir  John  { i ),  of  Clopton,  27a, 

Qopton,  Sir  John  (2),  of  Kentwell, 

Suffolk,  2So^i 
Clopton,  Joyce,  dauditer  of  William 

and  Anne.    Su  (Jtaew,  Joyce. 
Clopton,  Thomas  (i),  broker  of  Sir 

Hugh  (i),  IIS 
Qopton,  Thomas  (2),  of  Qopton  (d. 

1643).  82 
Clopton,  Walter,  of  Cockfield,  Suffolk, 

Qopton,  William,  of  Clopton,  S3S 
Clopton,  Sir  William,  of  Kentwell,  ^o 
Qutterbuck,  Ferdinando,  draper,  of 

Bishopsgate  ward,  215 
Cobden,  Rev.  Edward,  Vicar  of  Acton, 

Middlesex,  242 
Cobham,  Baron.   5«r  Brooke,  Henry, 

and  Oldcastle,  Sir  John 
Cockfield,    Suffolk.      Sm   Qopton, 

Walter 
CocklC)  161 

Cockle^emoys,  small  coins,  433 
Cock  LartlVs  Boai^  quoted,  352 
CockpitTheatre.   ^MPhcenixTheatre 
Cockpit  at  Whitehall,  433,  446 
Cocledemoy,    See  Marston,  John 
Coel,  early  British  king,  93,  94 
Cokain,  Sir  Aston,  quoted,  4S7 
Coke,  Sir  Edward,  Lord  Chief  Justice, 

129,  150,  410 
Colchester,  legendary  origin  of,  93, 04 
Colesbome,     Gloucesteiihire.       See 

Higgs,  Thomas. 
College-house  at  Stratford,  80,  343 
Collier,  John  Payne,  F.S.A.,  776, 443, 

4J^,  4S7,  4SS,  4S9»  4^S»  4^Sf  472, 

474.  477.  etc 
Collingwood,  Ralph,  Dean  of  Lich- 
field, 81 
Collins,  Arthur,  his  Peerage  referred 

to,  412 
Collins,  Francis,  lawyer,  of  Warwick, 

226,  230 


Collins,  William,  poet,  383,  384,  385 
Cologne  (Agrippina),  death  of  Maria 

de^Mediciat,273 
Colonna,  Prospero,  j^ 
Coloquintida,  263 
Colt's-fbot,  used  to  adulterate  tobacco, 

205,466 


Comb,  Mary,  of  Stratford,  245 
Combe,  John,  of  Stratford,  81, 


82, 


127,  I39b  148,  231.  333,  346 
Combe,  Thomas,  of  Stratford,  81, 226 
Combe,  William,  of  Stratford,  139, 

148,  149.  150 
**  Combes,"  Justice,  of  Stratford,  321 
Comedy  0/  Brron.    Su  Shakespeare, 

William  (i) 
Commin,  Walter,  of  Snitterfield,  107 
Commin,  William,  fitther  of  Walter, 

107 
Commines,  Philippe  de,  Dent's  trans- 
lation of,  s^s 
Common-fields  at  Stratford,  i34-5» 

140 
Compton-by-Brailes,  Warwnckshire, 

39 

Compton,  Elizabeth,  wife  of  William, 
210 

Compton,  William,  K.6.,  Earl  of 
Northampton,  199,  210,  240 

Compton,  Sir  William,  of  Compton- 
by-Brailes,  Warwickshire,  S9 

Condamine,  C.  M.  de  U,  Voyage  of, 
quoted,  360-1 

Condell,  Henry,  actor,  226, 464^  482, 

483 
Conduit,  the  Great,  near  West  Cheap, 

263 
Conduit-heads  at  Marykbone,  165, 

190,  191,  102 
"  Coney-gree,    meaning  and  uses  of, 

134 
Coningsby,  Ralph,  lord  of  manor  of 

Stratford,  320 
Constable,  Leeend  o(   at  Grendon 

Underwood,  Bucks.,  184-8 
Constable,  Office  of,  at  Stratford,  79 
ConsUble  Marshal  at  the  Temple, 

196 
Constantius  Chlorus,  94 
CoHtesdu  Monde ^  Les^  referred  to,  479 
Conway,  Sir  John,  of  Luddinpton,  27 
Cooke,  James,  surgeon,  of  Warwick, 

239,  240,  248,  249,  250 
Coombe  Keynes,  Dorset,  Tithing-man 

of,  124 
Cooper,   Anthony  Ashley,   Earl  of 

Shaftesbury,  308 
Coranto,  The,  195,  408,  409.  41S 


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INDEX 


493 


C^riokmus.  SSw  Shakespeare,  William 
(I) 

Cornachine,  Dr.,  of  Pisa,  305 

Corney,  Bolton,  essay  on  Shake- 
speare's birthday,  quoted,  aa 

Cornish,  William,  of  the  Chapel 
Royal,  460 

Comwallis,  Sir  Charles,  referred  to, 

Comwallis,  Sir  William,  son  of  Sir 
Charles,  Essays  by,  quoted,  371-2 

Coronelli,  Vincenzo,  his  Sptcckio  dil 
Mart  rderred  to,  374,  375,  378 

Coryat,  Thomas,  his  CrudUi$s  re- 
ferred to,  128 

Conn,  Richard,  lawyer,  of  Worcester, 

3^ 
Coto,   ailment   prevalent   in   Sonth 

America,  366 
Cotswold  sports,  168 
Cotton,  Eleanor,  wife  of  Samuel,  2691 

271 
Cotton,  Sir  Robert.    Su  Pory,  John 
Cotton,  Samuel,  of  Henwick,  Beds., 

969 
Coughton,  Warwickshire,  67 
Courante.    See  Coranto 
Court,  Grace,  daughter  of  following, 

240 
Court,  Mr.,  apothecary,  of  Stratford, 

240,  264 
Court-leet,  Charge  of,  quoted,  373 
Coutances,  John  de.  Bishop  of  Wor- 
cester, 320 
Covel,  Rev.  John,  d.d.  ,  Z>Mi7qttoted, 

146 
Coventry,  Free  School  at,  108 ;  Hunter 

on  Shakespeares  of,  109 
Coventry,  Sir  William,  Commissioner 

of  the  Navy,  331 
Cowell,  John»  ll.d..  Interpreter  of, 

quoted,  142 
Cox,  on  history  of  Long  Melford, 

quoted,  281 
Coxcomb,  The,    Su  Fletcher,  John 
Coxeter,    Thomas,    bookseller    and 

antiquary,  441 
"Crack,"  meaning  and  use  of  word, 

Craig,  Mr.  W.  J.,  his   edition   of 

King  Lear  referred  to,  S4^ 
Cranmer,  Thomas,  hb  version  of  the 

Bible  referred  to,  j^^ 
Craven,  Holy  Wells  in,  93 
Creed  Lane,  E.C  451 
Crekrhton,  Charles,  M.D.,  his  History 

of  Epidemics  referred  to,  243,  245, 

309,  425,  469 


Crendon.    See  Grendon  Underwood, 

Long  Crendon 
Cressingham  Court-rolls,  referred  to, 

29 
Creswick,  Frands,  wine-merchant,  of 

Bristol,  259 
Crofts,  Sir  James,  friend  of  Howell, 

289,35? 
Croke,  Sir  George,   judge.  Reports 

quoted,  29-30 
Cromwell,  Oliver,  story  of,  325-6 
Crosby,   Dame  Anne,   wife  of   Sir 

John,  208 
Crosby,  Sir  John,  of  Crosby  Place, 

206-8 
Crosby  Place,  Bishopsgate,  E.C  199, 

206-10,  213,  215,  234 
Crow-flowers,  IS7-8 
"Crown  Imperial,"  flower,  162 
Crown  Inn,  Ozon.,  346,  347 
Croydon,  Surrey,  Duice  of  Death  in 

Archbishops'  palace  at,  88 
Cruelty  of  the  Spanusrds  in  Peru^ 

The.  See  Davenant,  Sir  William 
Crusius,  Martinus.  Su  Kraus,  Martin 
Crystal  in  Guiana,  364;  Mountain 

of,  359 
Cuckoo-buds,  158-9 
Cuckoo-flowers,  158 
Culljmore,    Dr.,    of   St.    Helen's, 

Bishopsgate,  217 
Culpeper   or   Culpepper,    Nicholas, 

306,4*5 

Cumana,  Rales^i  at,  363 

Cunningham,  Peter,  paper  by,  re- 
ferred to,  434 

Cupid's  Revenge,    See  Fletcher,  John 

Curiapan,  Ral^h  at,  359 

Curll;  pamphlet  on  £ssez  divorce 
published  by,  referred  to,  S99 

Curtain  in  theatres,  use  of,  460 

Curtain  Theatre,  Shoreditch,  E.,  50, 

471 
Cutler,  Mr.,  story  of,  310 
Cutwode,  Thomas,  Ca/tha,  by,  quoted^ 

160,  162 
CymMine,  5;(#  Shakespeare,  William 

(0 
Cynthicfs  Revels,    See  Jonson,  Ben 
Qrprus,  crape  from,  454 ;  and  Venice, 

290 

D 

Dafibdils  in  Shakespeare,  162 
Dagon,    Hunter's    theories    as    to 

GUiban  and,  387-8 
Dalam,    William,    schoolmaster    of 

Stratford,  98 


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494 


INDEX 


Dance  of  Death  at  Stfatford  and 
elsewhere,  87-^ 

Dancers,  the  High,  at  Somerset's 
marriage,  404-5 

Daniel,  Mr.,  of  Long  Melford,  281 

Daniel,  Samuel,  and  the  Children  of 
the  Revels,  475-6;  his  yuiom  of 
the  Twehjt  Goddesses^  412*13 

Danish  Archives  at  Record  Office, 
referred  to,  437 

Danson,  Mr.,  tailor  to  James  I.,  431 

Darby,  Alderman,  of  Fenchurch 
Street,  E-C,  207 

Darnel,  160-1 

Davenant,  John  (i).  Bishop  of  Salis- 
bury, 347 

Davenant,  John  (2),  vintner,  of  Ox- 
ford, 46,  347 

Davenant,  Mrs.,  wife  of  John  (2)» 
46,  347. 

Davenant,  Nicholas,  son  of  John  (2), 

347. 
Davenant,  Rev.  Robert,  son  of  John 

(2),  46,  347 
Davenant,  Sir  William,   45-8,    C9, 

302,  346,  347.  348, 441.  444.  401 ; 

his  Shakespearean  revivals,  56-8 ; 

his  Sieg9  of  HAodes,  etc.,  461 ;  his 

Wtfj,444 
Davenport,  Rev.  James,  D.D.,  Vicar 

of  Stratford,  Jj^ 
Davies,  John,  of  Hereford,  epigrams 

by,  quoted,  55,  368,  472 
Davies,  Rev.  John,  D.D.,  of  Mallwyd, 

Merionethshire,  his  Welsh  Gram- 
mar, 279 
Davies,  Sir  John,  epigram  by,  quoted, 

50 ;  his  Orchestra  quoted,  409 
Davies,    Rev.     Richard,    Vicar    of 

Sapperton,  Gloucestershire,  quoted, 

40-I,  530- 
Davies,  Thomas,  prompter,  quoted, 

53.  5« 
Davis,  Mr.  C.  E.,  Mineral  Baths  of 

Bath,  by,  referred  to,  99 
Dawkins,    Profl    W.    Boyd,    Caoe 

Hunting,  by,  referred  to,  380 
Day,  Mr.,  surgeon  at  Oxford,  300 
Day,  Thomas,  actor,  471,  476 
De  Clifford,   Lord,  sale    of  family 

papers  belonging  to,  327 
^*u4c^t  to,"  (Sspute  as  to  meaning 

of,  420-1. 
Deer-hounds,  Irish,  172 
Dekker  or  Decker,Thomas,  dramatist, 

his  SatirO'Mastix,  53-5;  quoted, 

55.  47^' 
Dekker,   Thomas,    and    Middleton, 


Thomas,  their  ^Mriii^  (7ir/quoted, 

Dekker,  Thomas,  and  Webster,  John, 
their  Northward- Ho,  so  /  their 
fVestwardSb,  quoted,  etc,  50-1, 

196-7.  47^ 
Delabarr,  Mrs.,  patient  of  John  Hall, 

241 
Denham,  Sir  John,  185 
Deputies,  Alderman's,  lot  City  Wards, 

2XI-I2 

Derby,  Earl  of.     See  Stanley,  Henry 
Derby,  Shakespeares  of,  109 
"Derbyshire   neck,"   synonym    for 

goitre,  366 
Dethick,  Sir  William,  Garter  king- 

of-arms,  104 
Devereux,  Frances,  Countess  of  Essex, 

395-422,  passim 
Devereux,  Lettice,  Countess  of  Essex 

(afterwardsof  Leicester),her  players, 

100 
Devereux,  Robert,  K.G.,  2nd  Earl  of 

Essex,  199,  395,  397 
Devereux,  Robert,  3rd  Earl  of  Essex, 

395-422,  passim,  480 
Devereux  family,  of  Shustoke,  War- 
wickshire, 321 
Derdl  is  an  Ass,  The,    See  Jonson, 

Ben. 
D'Ewes,  Sir  Simonds,  quoted,  425 
"Dewlapped  mountaineers,"  origin 

of  phrase,  365-7 
Dialect  Dictionary,  EngHsh,  referred 

to,  141 
Diamonds  in  Guiana,  364 
Diaphoretics,   use   of,   in  medicine, 

Dibdin,  Rev.  Thomas  Frognall,  D.D., 

quoted,  449 
Dictionary  of  National  Biography^ 

referred  to,  231  ^  2gg,  joj,  339 
Diella,  book  of  sonnets  b^  R.  L., 

quoted,  322 
Digby,  Sir  Kenelm,  301,  305 
Digges,  Leonard,  verses  by,  quoted, 

231,  442,  445,  446 
Diplomas,  medical,  how  obtained,  225 
**  Dislodge,"  sporting  term,  167 
Disraeli,  Isaac,  Curiosities  of  Liter- 
ature, quoted,  411 
Dive -dapper,    the,    mentioned    by 

Shakespeare,  153 
Dodda,  Lewin,  pre-Conquest  ^Eirrner 

of  Wilmcote,  115 
Dodwell,  Warwickshire,  97 
*<  Dog-draw,"  sporting  term,  169 
Dogs  in  Shakespeare,  170-6 


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INDEX 


495 


Dogs,  tract  on  English.    Su  Caius, 

John 
Domesday  Book,  referred  to,  73, 115, 

135.  'J^ 
Domestic  State  Papers,  Calendar  of, 

quoted,  233,  etc 
Dominicans  at  Blackfriars,  451 
Dorado,  £1,  king  of  the   headless 

men,  364 
Dorchester,  Marquess  of.    Su  Pierre- 

pont,  Henrv 
Dorchester,  Viscount     See  Carleton, 

Sir  Dudley 
Dort,  wine- trade  at,  283 
Douce,  Francis,  374;  his  Dance  of 

Death  referred  to,  88,  80 
Douthwaite,  W.  R.,  Grays  Inu^  by, 

quoted,  193,  194, 195,  196, 199, 201 
Dover,  Robert,  of  Barton  -  on -the- 

Heath,  168 
Dowdall,  Mr.,  his  letter  to  Edward 

Southwell,  39-40»  3»7-38»  34^. 
Downes,  John,   his  Roscius  Angli- 

canus,  quoted,  S<,  56,  57-« 
"Dowsabel,"  Shakespeare's   use   of 

name,  199 
Drake,  Sir  Francis,  quoted,  365-6 
Draycot,  Wilts.,  Tithing* man  at,  124 
Drayton,  Michael,  240,  306, 310, 31 1, 

345,  441  ;  his  Pastorals  quoted, 

199;  his  Poly-Olbion  quoted,  66, 

67-«,  70 
Droeshout,   Martin,  his  portrait   of 

Shakespeare,  232 
Droitwich,  Worcestershire,  Leland  at, 

163 

"  Drolleries,"  use  of  word,  411 

Drummond,  William,  of  Hawthorn- 
den.    See  Jonson,  Ben 

Drunkenness  in  X7th  century,  309-10 

Drury  Lane  Theatre,  461 

Dryden,  John,  his  Essay  on  Dramatic 
Poetry  of  the  Last  Age  referred  to, 
442 ;  his  alteration  of  The  Tempest 
referred  to,  313,  480 ;  its  prence 
quoted,  45~6,  450 

Duck,  Wild,  mentioned  in  Shake- 
spwtfe,  153 

Dudley,  Sir,  Ambrose,  Earl  of  War- 
wick, 75,  129 ;  his  bearwardens 
and  tumblers,  99 ;  his  players,  100, 
180 

Dudley,  Sir  Edward,  4th  Baron  Dud- 
ley ;  his  bearwardens,  99 

Dudley  family,  Earls  of  Warwick,  337 

Dudley,  John,  Duke  of  Northumber- 
land and  Earl  of  Warwick,  J9,  81, 
104,320 


Dudley,  Sir  Robert,   K.G.,  Earl  of 
Leicester,  his  players,  99,  100,  180 
Dugdale,  Sir  William,  Garter  king- 
of-arms,  his  Antiquities  of  War- 
wickshire, Quoted,  64,  67,  75,  76, 
81,  82,  84,  85,  107-^1  112,  1K-16, 
129, 132, 135-6,  250,  322;  referred 
to,  72,  86,  336 ;  Diary  referred  to, 
231 ;  History  of  St,  PauPs  referred 
to,  89;    Monasticon   Anglicanum 
referred  to,  iSg,  451, 4S3;  Origines 
JuridiciaUs  quoted,  194,  195,  200 
Duley,  John,  of  Tiddington,  133 
Dulwich,   MSS.   preserved  at,  458, 

462 
Dumb   Night,   The,      See  Machin, 

Lewis ;  Markham,  Gervase. 
Dunbar,  John  Taylor  at,  404 
Dunsmore  Heath,  Warwickshire,  67 
Dunstable,  Temple  of  Diana  at,  65 
Dupont,  M.,  V Homme  pendant  Us 
Ages  de  la  Pierre,  referred  to,  380 
Duret   or   Duretto,  the,   species   of 

dance,  408 
Dutch  Courtesan,  or  Cocledemcy.  See 

Marston,  John 
Dutchman  at  Oxford,  story  of,  310 
Dynne,  Francis,  servant  to  Laurence 
Bassel,  of  St  Helen's,  Bishopsgate, 
217 

E 

Eadbert,  Bishop  of  Worcester,  72, 73 

Earth-nuts,  164 

''Earth   upon    earth,"   poems   and 

epitaphs  on  subject,  95-6 
East    India    Company,    Early    be- 
ginnings of,  209 
Eastward'Ho,    5k^  Jonson,  Ben 
Eden,  Richard,  his  Historie  of  Tra- 

vayle  referred  to,  jgj 
Edgehill,  Warwickshire,    163,   328; 

Battle  of,  331 
Edingdon,    Wilts.,    house   of  Bon- 

hommes  at,  303 
Edmonds,  Sir  Clement,  of  Preston, 

Northants,  268 
Edward,  Earl  of  Warwick,  son  of 

George,  Duke  of  Clarence,  108 
Edwar£,  John,  of  Tiddinfton,  133 
Edwards,   Richard,  of  the   Chapel 

Royal,  his  Palamon  ondArcyte,  176 
Edwards,  Thomas,  sydesman  of  St 

Helen's,  Bishopsgate,  213 
Egerton,  Sir  Thomas,  Baron  EUes- 

mere  and  Viscount  Brackley,  148 
Eglisham,   George,  M.D.,   his  Pro* 

dromus  Vindicta  referred  to,  243-4 


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496 


INDEX 


Eldoimdo,  Region  and  dty  oi^  357, 

362 
Elizabeth  (i),  Princess  of  England, 

Countess  PaUtine  of  the  Rhine, 

and  Queen  of  Bohemia,  240,  254, 

399t  400,  423^9  >««*» 
Ebzabeth  (2),  Queen  of  England,  129, 

176,    262,    361,    4SJ*    475;    her 

company    of    players,     180;     of 

tumolers,  99 
Elizabeth  (3)  de  Bourbon,  Queen- 
Consort  of  Philip  IV.  of  Spain,  292 
Elks  brought  to  England,  437 
EUacombe,  Rer.  H.   N.,   Vicai  of 

Bitton,  Gloucestershire,  his  Plamt- 

hr§  of  ShaJuspean^  quoted,  161 
Ellesmere,  Baron.    Su  Egerton,  Sir 

Thomas 
Else,  Karl,  his  William  Skaktspion 

referred  to,  2J3 
"  Embossed,"  meaning  of,  173-4 
Emeria,  Prorince  of,  357,  359 
SncpmumdOf  system  of,  in  Spanish 

colonies,  361 
Englefield,  Sir  Francis,  39 
Entrance  to  stage  in  early  theatres, 

460 
Entries,    Book    of,    for    Worcester 

diocese,  referred  to,  262 
Epi^ms.     See   Davies,  John   and 

Sir  John;    FitzGefirey,  Charles; 

Jonson,  Ben 
"Epistlers,"  chosen  from   boys  of 

Chapel  Royal,  470 
Erasmus,    his    Latin    and    English 

dialogues,  referred  to,  102 
EspouaOs,  Contracts  of,  31-2;  royal, 

426-7 
Essex,  Countess  o£    Su  Deverenx, 

Frances  and  Lettice 
Essex,  Earl  of.  See  Deverenx,  Robert 
Essex  House,  banouet  at,  435 
Ethelburga,  St.,  Bishopsgate,  church 

and  parish  o(  210,  2x3 
Ethelwulf,  King  of  Wessex,  71,  72 
Euselnns,  338 

Eustace,  Abbot  of  Flay,  his  preaching- 
tour  in  England,  76 
Evans,  Henry,  theatrical  manager, 

469.  476,  483.  484 
Evelegfa,    Rev.    Charles,    if.D.,    of 

Harberton,  Devon,  304 
Evelyn,  John,  Diary^  quoted,  449 
Everkeston,  Leicestershire,  129 
Every  Mam  in  His  Humour,    See 

Jonson,  Ben 
Every  Man  otUef  His  Humour,   Sh 

Jonson,  Ben 


Evesham,  Abbey  o(  connection  with 

Shottery,  135-6 
Evesham,   Hugh   of,   cardinal  and 

physician,  303 
"Evil.town,"38i 
Ewaipanoma,   the  headless  nation, 

362 
Exchange,  Royal,  Queen  Eliabeth's 

visit  to,  262,  4S5 
Exchequer  Records,  referred  to,  103 
Exeter  House,  will  of  Lady  Barnard 

proved  at,  270 
Experiem^d  Famkr^    The^   quoted, 

151.  154 
Exton,  Lord  Harii^on  o£   .SerHar- 

ineton,  John 
Eye-bright,  powdered,  264 


"Fading"   and    "fiuiow,"  country 

dances,  403 
Fairfax,    Sir    Thomas,    3rd    Baron 

Fair&x  of  Cameron,  294 
Fairs  at  Stratford,  75,  76,  9c 
Falck,   Jacob,    Dutdi    ambassador, 

monument  of,  234 
Falcon  Inn  at  Stratford,  307 
Falsiqfe^    Sir  Jokn^    {day  of,   439, 

445-6 
Familiar  Spirits,  390 
Fanshawe,  Mrs.,  344 
Farmer,  Rev.  Richard,  D.D.,  F.S.A., 

master    of    Emmanuel    College, 

Cambridge,  referred  to,  60,  372 
Famham,   Nicholas   de,   Bishop   of 

Durham,  303 
Farryner,  baker  in  Pudding  Lane, 

E,C.,  274 
Fastolf,  Sir  John,  K.G.,  446 
Faial  Dowry,  The,    Su  MassingiK, 

PhUip 
Faulconbridge  or  Fauconberg,  Thos., 

his  attack  on  London,  207 
Fawn,  buck  of  first  year,  170 
Fawn^  The.    See  Biarston,  John 
Fayreoook,Davye,servantto  Laurence 

Bassel,  217 
Feather-workers  of  Blackfinars,  454 
Fecamp,  Dance  of  Death  at,  88 
Fee  for  performance  of  play,  oflKctal, 

438 
Fennell,  T.,  Shakespeare  Repository 

referred  to,  23^^  249,  264 
Fenton,  Elijah,  his  edition  of  Waller, 


quoted,  439 

Ferdinand    L 

Naples,  386 


(Ferrante),    King   of 


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INDEX 


497 


Fernandez,  Mr.,  of  Lampedusa,  375, 

378 
Ferns,  expulsion  of  rats  from  bishopric 

of,  29s 
Festus,    Sext.    Pompeius,    Jonson's 

debt  to,  416 
Fevers,  varieties  of,  243,  305-9 
Field,    Mr.,    tanner,    of   Stratford, 

ftither  of  Richard,  iSo 
Field,  Nathaniel,  actor-dramatist,  47, 
466,  467,  ^,  471,  472,  473,  474» 
475i  476,  477,  433 ;  Ws  playSf  473 
Field,  Ridiard,  printer,  180 
Fielden  of  Warwickshire,  163 
Fifteen,  tax  of  the,  213,  219 
Filaster.   See  PiftiAu/^  and  Fletcher, 

John 
Fille,  Richard,  bene&ctor  of  Strat- 
ford guild,  84 
Fire  of  London,  Great,  274 

Firett,  Sir  John,  484 

Fish,  Simon :  his  SupplUatum  of  the 

Beggars^  316 
Fisher's  AntiquUUs  of  Warwickshiriy 

referred  to,  92,  100 
FitzGeffirey,    Charles,    epigram   by, 

quoted,  ^6 
Fitzherbert,  Sir  Anthony,  judge,  his 

Book  of  Husbandry  quoted,  114, 

117,  118,  121,  142,  143,  I44»  161; 

his  Book  of  Surveying  (^Moied,  157, 

160 
Fitzrichard,  Hugh,  of  Snitterfield,  1 1 1 
Fleay,  F.  G.,  his  CkronicU  of  Drama 

quoted,  etc.,  /p7,  369,  426^  441, 

^4f  47^»  47S*  477*  ^^»  479*  his 
Ckroniclo*  History  of  Skakespearg 
quoted,  369,  372 

Fleet  Ditch,  452 

Fleetwood,  Sir  Miles,  Recorder  of 
London,  189,  190,  191 

Fleming,  Abraham,  translator  of 
Caiu?  tract  on  dogs,  /// 

Fletcher,  John,  dramatist,  34O,  342 

Fletcher,  John,  and  Francis  fieaumont, 
plays  by,  quoted  or  referred  to; 
Bloody  Broih&ry  Thi^sit;  Captain^ 
The,  435i  43^;  Coxcomb^  The,  426; 
Cupid* s  Hetfonge,  427  ;  JCing  and 
no  King^  A^  439,  440;  Knight  of 
-'     ~       '     Pe'  " 


the  Burning  Pestle,  121 ;  Maui's 
Tragedy,  The,  438,  439;  Nice 
Valour,  The,  20J,  261;  Noble 
Gentleman,  The,  441 ;  Philaster, 
or,  Leve  lies  a-bleeding,  438,  439 ; 
Valentinian,  4SS ;  Woman-Hater, 
The,  465 
Flexon,  &u.,  barber,  of  Oxford,  300 

2    K 


Flores,  Juan  de,  author  of  Aurelio 

and  fsahella,  384 
Floridans    in    Bacon's    Masque    of 

Flowers,  407 
Florio,  John,  466 ;  his  Italian  dic- 
tionary, 372 ;    his   translation   of 

Montaigne,  247,  371 
Flower-de-Luce,  162 
Floyd,  quoted,  281 
Folio  of  Shakespeare's  plays,  first, 

pre&ce  to,  quoted,  405;  referred 

to,  47a 
Fontaine,  Jean,  and  L.   Schonbub, 

Travels  of,  quoted,  468 
Fordham,  John  de.  Bishop  of  Ely,  in 

Shakespeare,  318,  319 
**  Fore-stall,  to,"  sporting  term,  166-7 
Fortunate  Isles,  Masque  of  the.     See 

Jonson,  Ben 
Fortune  Theatre,  458,  459,  464,  477 
Fosse  Way,  Roman  road  from  Bath 

to  Lincoln,  65,  66-7,  68 
Fossett,  Mr.,  Nonconformist  divine 

at  Stratford,  241 
Four  Prentices  of  London,  The.    See 

Heywood,  Thomas 
Four-Shire-Stone,  near  Chipping  Nor- 
ton, Battle  of  the,  184 
Four  Swans  Inn,  Bishopsgate,  210 
Fox.  The.    See  Jonson,  Ben 
Fox  or  Foxe,  John,  his  Acts  and 

Monuments  referred  to,  316 
Foxe,   Richard,  Alderman's  deputy 

for  ward  of  Bishopsgate  Within, 

211 
Fox-hounds,  171 

Fox-hunting  at  Marylebone  conduit- 
heads,  191 
Francis,  Mr.,  Archbishop's  medical 

licence  granted  to,  302-3 
Frederick,   Count    Palatine   of  the 

Rhine,  King  of  Bohemia,   K.G., 

399.    400,    423-49   passim;    his 

company  of  players,  477 
"Free-board,"  agriculturai  term  at 

Stratford,  14X-2 
Frensham,  Surrey,  380 
Frisknev,  Lincolnshire,  frescoes   in 

church  of^  gj 
**  Frith,"  agricultural  term,  meamng 

of,  141 
Frost,  John,  actor,  471 
Fulbrooke,  Warwickshire,  38,  39 
Fuller,   Rev.   Thomas,  quoted,   55, 

281,  446,  47^ 
Fulman,   Rev.  William,  of  Meysey 

Hampton,  Gloucestershire,  4a 
Fumitory,  143,  161 


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498 


INDEX 


"Furlongs,"   divisions   of  common 

field,  141,  143-4 
Fumess,  Mr.  H.  H.,  hh  Variorum 

edition  of   Tie    Tempest  quoted, 

365-6 
Furnivall,  Dr.  F.  J.,  referred  to,  SSS 


Gale,  Roger,  F.S.A.,  his  Four  Great 

Ways  quoted,  67 
Galliards,  195,  408-9,  4x5 
Gams,  Series  Episcoparttmf  referred 

to,  ^9 
Gaol-fever,  visitations  of,  307-S 
Garrick,  David,  53,  60,  447 
Garrick,  Eva,  wife  of  David,  447 
Gaze-hounds,  171 
Geneva   version    of  Bible,   quoted, 

381-2 
Genius,  personified  use  of  word,  237 
Geoffirey  of  Monmouth,  his  Histcria 

Britonum  referred  to,  69,  94 
George,  Duke  of  Clarence,  brother  of 

Edward  IV.,  J9 
George  Inn  at  Stratford,  307 
George,    St.,    Queen    Square,    W., 

Church  of,  304,  and  see  Stukely, 

Rev,  William 
Gerard,  John,  his  garden,  202-5  t  his 

£?Ma// quoted,  147,  158, 16 1,  162, 

164,  165,  192,  202,  203,  204,  205 
Gerfalcons,  imported  from  Iceland, 

437 
Gesnec,  Conrad,  his  History  of  Quad- 
rupeds referred  to,  366;  letter  of 

John  Caius  to,  concerning  dogs. 

See  Caius,  John 
Gesta  Grayorum^  quoted,  196-9 
Gibbon,  Edward,  his  History y  etc., 

quoted,  94 
Ginard,  Godfrey,  Bishop  of  Worcester, 

76 
Gifford,  William,  his  life  of  Jonson 

referred  to,  369,  411,  412 
Gilbert,  Elizabeth,  n4e  Barnard,  wife 

of  following,  269 
Gilbert,   Henry,  of  Locko,   Derby- 
shire, 269,  271 
Gildon,  Charles,  his  edition  of  Lang- 

baine,  312,  343,  and  su  LAUgbaine, 

Gerard 
Giles,  Nathaniel,  Mus.  Doc,  of  the 

Chapel  Royal,  469,  470 
Giles'-inthe-Fields,    parish   of  St., 

191,  192 
Gill,  Dr.,  surgeon  at  Oxford,  300 
Gillyflower,  varieties  of,  162-3 


Gilpit,  court  of,  at  Stratford,  65,  and 

see  Guildpits 
Giraldus  Cambrensb,  his  Itiiurarium 

Cambria    referred    to,    &S;    his 

Topegraphia  HiUruica^  295 
** Globe"  Shakespeare,  glossary  to, 

quoted,  757 
Globe  Theatre,  168,  206,  440,  450, 

4S9»  464,  466,  471.  473»  481,  482. 

483,484 
Gloucester,  Roman  roads  at,  67,  68 
Glover,  trade  of,  349 
Godeski,  Mr.,  fidend  of  Ge<»ge  Hart- 
man,  302 
Godwin,  Francis,  Bishop  of  Hereford, 

his  De  Prasulibus  referred  to,  joj 
Gt4tre,  .Stfr  "  Bavarian  pouch,"  Coto, 

••  Derbyshire  neck  " 
Gold,  found  in  Guiana,  360 
Golden     Legend,      See     Voragine, 

Jacobus  de 
Golding,  Arthur,  his  translation  of 

Ovid  Quoted,  388-9 
**  Golds,    popular  name  for  marigold, 

160 
Gondomar,  Diego  de  Acufia,  Conde 

de,  Spanish  ambassador,  415 
Good,  Isaac,  of  limerick,  quoted  by 

Camden,  21^ 
Goodson,  Thomas,  of  St.   Helen's 

parish,  Bishopsgate,  211 
"  Goodwife,  Goody,"  title  of,  240 
Gracechurch  Street,  E.C,  210 
Grain,  Return  of  owners  of,  at  Strat- 
ford, referred  to,  218-19 
Gramer,  Abraham,  sidesman  of  St. 

Helen's,  Bishopsgate,  213 
Grand  Christmas  at  Inner  Temple, 

194 
Grange,  Prince  de  la,  at  Lincoln's 

Inn,  196 
Gravel  Pits,  Kensington,  190 
Gray,  Thomas,  notes  on  Hudibras, 

referred  to,  J99 


Gray. lags,  150 
Gray's  Inn  Fields,  19 


Fields,  193  ;  gardens,  201, 
262 ;  masques  performed  by  gentle- 
men of,  406-8,  432-3;  revels  at, 

»93-9 
Greade,  Peter,  servant  to  Laurence 

Bassel,  217 
Grebe.    See  Dive-dai>per 
Greenborough,  Warwickshire,  102 
Green  Curtain  play-house,  346 
Green  Dragon  Inn,  Bishopsgate,  E.C 

210,  213 
Greene,  Rev.  Joseph,  of  Welford,  1 

Stratford,  22,  26,  £7 


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INDEX 


499 


Greene,  Robert,  his  Alphofuus  re- 
ferred tO|  384 ;  his  Groatsworth  of 
WU  Quoted,  52 ;  his  Mmaphon 
quoted,  153,  i?^,  293»  S^S*  referred 
to,  199,  224 

Greene,  Thomas,  town-clerk  of  Strat- 
ford, 148,  149 

Greenhill,  J.,  friend  of  Aubrey,  346 

Greenwich,  Lord  Chamberlain's 
players  at,  198 

Greeorovius,  Ferdinand,  his  Ge- 
schUJUe  dtr  Stadt  Rom  referred  to, 

304 
Grendon  Underwood,  Bucks.,  184-7 
Gresham  College,  210 
Gresham,  Lady,  wife  of  Sir  Thomas, 

215,  216 
Gresham,    Sir   Thomas,    211,   212, 

262 
Greville,  Sir  Fulke,  K.B.,  ist  Baron 

Brooke,  337-8 
Greville,  Robert,  2nd  Baron  Brooke, 

338 
Grw,  Walter  de.  Archbishop  of  York 

(formerly  Bishop  of  Worcester),  75 
Griswold,  Clement,  131 
"Grove,"  technical  meaning  of,  146 
"Grysant,  physician  and  pope."  Su 

Urban  V: 
Gualtero,  Prince,  359,  360 
Guards,  Uniform  of,  at  wedding  of 

Princess  Elizabeth,  431 
Guiana,  Ralph's  visit  to,  357-^ 
Guild  of  Holy  Cross  at  Stratford,  83- 

97 ;  its  chapel,  80,  85-97 
Guildhall  at  Stratford,  98-104;  plays 

in,  98 
Guildpits,  name  of  road  at  Stratford, 

65»  74.  142 
Gunpowder  Plot,  Ward's  remarks  on, 
315-16 

H 
Hades,  agricultural  term,  142 
Hadjis  and  Marabouts,  magic  spells 

of,  287 
Hakluyt,    Richard,    Archdeacon   of 

Westminster,  397 ;  his  Voyages  re- 
ferred to,  3sS^  j66 
Hales,  John,  of  Coventry,  Qerk  of 

the  Hanaper,  108-9 
Halford,  Warwickshire,  67,  68 
"  Hall,"  in  sense  of  council-meeting, 

148 
Hall,  Edward,  his  C/Mson^  etc. ,  quoted, 

43»44 
Hall,  Elizabeth.    Sei  Barnard,  Dame 

Elizabeth 


Hall,  John  (i),  painter,  of  Stratford, 
232 

Hall,  John  (2),  physician,  Shake- 
speare's son-in-law,  60,  225,  226, 
227,  230,  233,  235,  239-51  passim, 
254,  264,  307 

Hall,  Susanna,  n/e  Shakespeare,  wife 
of  John,  60,  131,  223-30  passim f 
231,  242-51  passim,  266,  268 

Hall,  Rev.  William,  of  Acton,  Middle- 
sex, letter  of,  to  Edward  Thwaites, 

33^42 

Hall,  William,  vintner,  of  Lichfield, 
father  of  Rev.  William,  341 

HalUwell  (afterwards  Halliwell-Phil- 
lipps,  James  Orchard,  F.  R.  s. ,  P.sji. ; 
his  Outlines  referred  to,  etc,  27, 28, 
29, 7S»  ^09,  J23, 130, 134, 139, 140, 
156, 1S7,  227,  231-2, 233, 254, 258, 
-s^.  327i  33^t  347-*»  and  frequently 
in  notes.  Other  tracts  referred  to, 
99.  i87-«,  339,i^J»J<W 

Hamlet,  5MShakespeare,WUliam(l) 

Hamlet,  legend  of,  224 

Hampson,  MediijfEvi  Kalendarium, 
referred  to,  25 

Hampton  Court,  Masque  performed 
at.  See  Daniel,  Samuel ;  tennis  at, 
425.  437 ;  plays  at,  437-«,  444 

Hampton  -  in  -  Arden,  Warwickshire, 
112 

Hampton  Woods,  near  CharIecote,322 

"Hara  ha,"  Jeanne  d' Arc's  watch- 
word, 297 

Harberton,  Devon.  See  Evelegh, 
Rev.  Charles 

Hardwick,  Warwickshire,  103 

Harington,  John,  Baron  Harington 
of  Exton,  436 

Harington,  Sir  John,  436 ;  his  trans- 
lation of  Ariosto,  391-4 

Harley,  Robert,  Earl  of  Oxford,  340 

Harriers,  171 

Harrington,  Baron  Stanhope  of.  See 
Stanhope,  Sir  John 

Harrison,  John,  publisher,  180 

Hart,  Charles,  actor,  grandson  of 
WilUam  (i),  52 

Hart,  George,  271 

Hart,  Joan,  nie  Shakespeare,  wife  of 
William  (I),  52,  75,  224,  226,  227, 

256.  257,  324 
Hart,  Sir  John,  Lord  Ma3ror  of  London, 

215 
Hart,  Michael,  son  of  William  (i), 

225,  257 
Hart,  Thomas  ( i ),  son  of  William  ( i ), 

225,  257 


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500 


INDEX 


Hart,    Thomas    (2),    of    Stratford, 

271 
Hart,  William  (i),  hatter,  of  Stratford, 

224,324 
Hart,  William  {2),  son  of  William  (i), 

22s,  257 
Hartman,    George,    302,    his    Trus 

Preservir  quoted,  301,  305,  ^dg 
Harvey,  Gabriel,  quoted,  237 
Harvey,  John,   parish  clerk  of  St. 

Helen's,  Bishopsgate,  211, 212,  213 
Harvey,  William,  m.d.,  301 
Haslewood,  Joseph,  f.s.a.,  quoted, 

448 
Hassal,  Catharina,  wifeof  Hamoletus, 

223 
Hassal,  Hamoletus,  223 
Hathaway,  Agnes,  persons   of  the 

name,  28,  29 
Hathaway,   Anne.     Se$   Edwardes, 

Anne;  Shakespeare,   Anne;  and 

Wilson,  Anne 
Hathaway,  Bartholomew,  of  Shottery, 

28 
Hathaway,    EUzabetb,   daughter   of 

Thomas  (i),  248,  267,  271 
Hathaway,  families  of,  in  Forest  of 

Dean,  30 ;  at  lAiddington,  26,  27, 

29 ;  at  Shottery,  28, 135 ;  at  Weston- 

on-Avon,  26,  30-1 
Hathaway,    Gilbert,    of   Forest    of 

Dean,  30 
Hathaway,  Joan,  wife  of  Thomas  (i), 

307.  323 
Hathaway,    Joanna,     daughter     of 

Thomas  (i).    See  Kent,  Joanna 
Hathaway,  Tohn,  supposed  father  of 

Anne  Shakesp^re,  27-8 
Hathaway,     Judith,     daughter     of 

Thomas  (i),  248,  267,  270 
Hathaway,   Ralf,  of  Minsterworth, 

Gloucestershire,  30 
Hathaway,  Richard,  of  Shottery,  27, 

28 
Hathaway,  Richard,  alias  Gardner, 

of  Shottery,  26 
Hathawav,  Rose,  daughter  of  Thomas 

(I),  248,  271 
Hathaway,  Samuel,  supposed  father 

of  Anne  Shakespeare,  28 
Hathaway,    Susanna,    daughter    of 

Thomas  (i),  248,  271 
Hathaway  or  Hath  way,  Thomas  (i), 

of  Stratford,  248, 267, 270, 271, 323 
Hathaway,  Thomas    (2),  fiither   of 

Agnes,  28 
Hathaway,  William  (i)»  of  Lydney, 

Gloucestershire,  30 


Hathaway,  William  (2),  of  Ruardean, 

Gloucestershire,  30 
Hathaway,  William  (3),  of  Stratford, 

son  of  Tliomas  (i),  248 
Hathaway,  William  {4),  of  Weston- 

on- Avon,  brother  of  Thomas  (i), 

248.  267 
Hats  and  hatters,  324,  325 
Hatton  House,  Holbom,  W.C.,  319 
Hawkins,    Sir    Thomas,    letter    of 

Howell  to,  279 
Hazlitt,  William,  referred  to,  441 
Headborough,  or  Tithing-man,  office 

of,    124;    at    Great    Hillingdon, 

Middlesex,  189 
Head-lands,  agricultural  term,  142-3 
Headless  men,  legend  of,  362-5 
Heame,  Thomas,  ^,  86,  334-5 ;  his 

Autobiography  quoted,  335,  340 
Heartsease,  161 
"  Hearts,  Queen  of,"  comj^imentary 

name  given  to  Princess  Elizabeth, 

424 
Hea&,  Nicholas,  Archbishop  of  York 

(formerly  Bishop  of  Worcester),  320 
"Heavens,"  technical   meaning  of 

term  on  stage,  462 
Heber,  Richard,  D.aL.,  catalogue  of 

his  library,  444 
Hebraisms  in  Tempest^  Hunter's  dis- 
covery of,  387 
Hegenitius,  Gotfried,  his  IHnerarium 

referred  to,  234 
Helen,  Welsh  legends  of,  and  Roman 

roads,  94 
Helena,  St.,  93-4 
Helen's,  St,  Bishopsgate,  E.C.,  church 

and  parish  of,  206,  207,  209,  210, 

21 1, 212, 213 ;  priory  of,  206,212-13 
Helen's  Qose,  Great  St.,  £.C,  212; 

Little  St.,  21^ 
Heliotrope  or  Girasol.    Su  Marigold 
Hemin^  (also  Heminge,  Heminges, 

Hemines,  Hemmings,  Hemynges, 

etc),  John,  actor,  226,  400,  437, 

43S.  443»  444,  483 

Henbane,  yellow,  substitute  for  to- 
bacco, 204,  466 

Henrietta  Maria,  Queen-Consort  of 
Charles  I.,  466 ;  her  visit  to  Strat- 
ford, 248 

Henry /K, King^vKt\&  1. and  iL  Su 
Shakespeare,  William  (i) 

Henry  Iv.,  King  of  France,  198 

Henry  K,  King.  See  Shakespeare, 
William  (I) 

Henty  FI,,  King^  parts  i.,  iL,  and 
'm,    5^  Shakespeare,  William  (i) 


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INDEX 


501 


Henry  VIII.,  King,  108 

Hmry  VII L,  King,  Su  Shake- 
speare, William  (i) 

Henry,  Prince  of  Wales,  son  of 
James  L,  415,  433;  his  death, 
307-9,  423-6 ;  his  players,  477 

Henslowe  MSS.  at  Dulvich,  368, 
462 

Henslowe,  Agnes  or  Anne,  wife  of 
Philip,  29 

Henslowe,  Philip,  29 

Henwick  Beds.    Su  Cotton,  Samuel 

Heracllus,  Emperor  of  the  East,  94-5 

Herbert,  Edward,  Baron  Herbert  of 
Cherbury,  Walpole's  edition  of 
Life  of,  443 

Herbert,  Sir  Henry,  Master  of  the 
Revels,  484;  his  Office-Book^  441, 
443,  444,  446 

Herbert,  Mary,  Countess  of  Pem- 
broke, mother  of  William  (i),  209 

Herbert,  Sir  Philip,  K.G.,  4th  Earl 
of  Pembroke  ana  ist  Earl  of  Mont- 
gomery, 397,  398,  405,  414.  480, 
481,  482,  484 

Herbert,  Susan,  Countess  of  Pem- 
broke and  Montgomery,  397 

Herbert,  William  (i),  3rd  Earl  of 
Pembroke,  287,  397,  398,  405 

Herbert,  William  (2),  2nd  Marquess 
and  titular  Duke  of  Powis,  443 

Hem-dogs,  172 

Hetley,  Sir  Thomas,  Riports  of, 
quoted,  146 

Heuter,  Pontus,  his  History  of  Bur- 
gundy^  referred  to,  125 

Hexham  Abbey,  Northumberland, 
Dance  of  Death  at,  88 

Heylyn,  Rev.  Peter,  D.D.,  312 

He^wood,  Thomas,  441 ;  his  Apology 
for  Actors  referred  to,  462;  his 
Fotir  Prentices  of  London  quoted, 

Hickes,  George,  Bishop-sufiragan  of 

Thetford,  his  Lingnarum  veterum 

septentrionalium  thesaurus  referred 

to,  339 

Higgens,  Thomas,  of  Tiddington,  133 

Higses,    Edward,    saddler,    of    St 

Helen's,  Bishopsfi^te,  213 
Hifi^,  Mary,  n4e  Barnard,  wife  of 

Thomas,  269,  271 
Higgs,  Thomas,  of  Colesbome,  Glou- 
cestershire, 269 
High  Cross,  near  Nuneaton,  65-6 
Highgate,  Middlesex,  165,  193 
HiU,  Agnes,  widow  of  John.    See 
Arden,  Agnes 


Hill,  J.,  of  Stratford,  his  essay  on 

Shakespeare's  birthplace  referred 

to,  74,  75 
Hill,  John,   of  Bearley,  Warwick- 
shire, 116 
«  HUler,  The,"  legend  of,  380 
Hillingdon,  Great,  Middlesex,  189 
Hine,  William,  of  Tiddington,  133 
Hireny  or  the  Faire   Greeke,     See 

Barkstead,  William 
ffistoria  Ifistrionica,     See  Wright, 

James 
Hobbies,  or  lark-hawks,  153,  154 
Hock,  varieties  of,  285 
Holbein,     Hans,    his    "Dance    of 

Death,"  88,  89,  90,  92 
Holbom,  wild-flowers  in,  192 
Holborn  Bars,  193 
Holdar,  Hamlet,  son  of  Humphry, 

224 
Holdar,  Humphry,  of  Stratford,  224 
Holdemess,  phrase  used  in,  421 
Hole  or  Hotle,  William,  portrait  of 

Florio  by,  372 
Holinshed,  Raphael,  his  Description 

of  Britaine  quoted,  1 14-15,  283, 

284,  296 
Holland,    Philemon,    see    Camden, 

William ;  his  translation  of  Pliny, 

quoted,  284 
Holt,  J.,  his  essay  on  The  Tempest, 

398-9 
Holyoake,  Rev.  Francis,  of  Southam, 

Warwickshire,  240 
Holyoake,    Rev.    Thomas,    son    of 

Rev.  Francis,  240 
Honywood,  Robert,  of  St.  Helen's, 

Bishopsgate,  217 
Hook  Norton,  Oxon.,  184 
Hope  Theatre,  477 
Horace,  Carmina,  quoted,  a^^ 
Horehound,  white,  medical  use  of, 

300 
Hotspur,  The,  anonymous  play,  438, 

445-6 
Hotwells,  the,  near  Bristol,  241 
Howard,   Sir  Charles,   ist  Earl   of 

Nottingham,  Lord  High  Admiral, 

419 ;  his  players,  368,  461-2 
Howard,  fiances.     Su  Devereux, 

Frances 
Howard,  Henry,  K.G.,   ist  Earl  of 

Northampton,  429 
Howard,  lliomas  (i),  K.G.,  2nd  Earl 

of  Arundel  and  Surrey,  272 
Howard,  Thomas  (2),  K.G.,  ist  Earl 

of  Suffolk,  395,  401 ;  his  players, 

289 


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502 


INDEX 


Howe,  Mrs.,  wife  of  Rer.  Thomas, 
^«^,  344 

Howe,  Rev.  Josias,  B.D.,  of  Trinity 
ColL,  Oxon.,  son  of  Rev.  Thomas, 
184,  185,  344 

Howe,  Rev.  Thomas,  of  Grendon 
Underwood,  Bucks.,  i8c 

Howell,  James,  EpisMz  uc-Elumct^ 
quoted,  etc.,  47,  aoi,  203,  277-97 
pasHm,  315-16,  322,  358-0,  409, 
410, 424,  440;  his  Survey  qj  Venice 
Quoted,  289,  292;  verses  by,  re- 
ferred to,  185 

Howell,  Rev.  Thomas,  of  (>nwil 
and  Abemant,  Carmarthen,  nther 
of  James,  410 

Howes,  Mr.,  quoted  by  J.  G.  Nichols, 
436 

^iM^Sbftnu,  notes  on.  i^Gray,  Thomas 

Hugh.    See  Evesham,  Hufh  of 

Hughes,  Thomas,  of  Gray^  Inn,  his 
MisforitmiS  of  Arthur^  195 

Hull,  plague  at,  245 

''Humana  Mens,"  Kentish  deed  of 
gift,  7a 

Humboldt,  Baron  Alexander  von,  his 
Travels  quoted,  361,  365 

Humorous  Da^s  Mirik,  The,  See 
Chapman,  George 

Humours^  probably  a  synonym  for 
the  above,  368 

Humphrey,  actor,  169 

Hunsdon,  Baron.  Su  Carey,  Sir 
George  and  Sir  Henry 

Hunter,  A.,  epitaph  composed  by, 
quoted,  234 

Hunter,  Joseph,  P.S.A.,  referred  to, 
etc.,  109,  no,  112,  181,  182,  206, 
220 1 321 ;  his  essay  on  The  Tempest^ 
357-94 

Hurd,  Richard,  D.  D. ,  Bishop  of  Wor- 
cester, quoted,  412 

Hutchins,  Rev.  John,  his  History  of 
Dorset  quoted,  124 

Hyde,  Edward,  ist  Earl  of  Qarendon, 

273 
Hyde  Park,  190 
HymoH^  Masque   of.     See  Jonson, 

Ben 


Icelandic  dogs,  171 

Ichneumon,  295 

Icknield  Way,  65 

Idiots,  custody  ol^  131 

**  Ignorant  Parliament,"  the,  318 

India  (i./.  West  Indies,  etc.),  203 


IngannaH,   (7/*,   and   GP  lugmm^ 

Italian  comedies,  200 
Ingleby,  C  M.,  lud.,  referred  to, 

SSf  148, 14? 
InsaiiaU  CoutUess^  The.  See  Maxston, 

John 
Insurances  in  seventeenth  century, 

367-« 
Ireland.  William,  of  Blackfriaxs,  456 
Ireland  Yard,  Blackfriars,  456 
Irish  Masque,  The,    &«  Jooson,  Ben 
"Irish  rat,"  Shakespeare's  allusion 

to,  295 
Irish  wolves,  Iqg^ends  of,  293-4 
Isidore  of  SevOle,  referred  to,  363, 

366 
Ising-glass,  265 
Islii^on,  193 
Iter  Caroiinum.     See  Walker,   Sir 

Edward 
Ivy,  used  for  hops  in  brewing,  284 


"Jack,  Resolute,"  nickname  for  John 

Florio,  466 
Jackson,    Mr.    B.    D.,   referred  to, 

Jacobs,  Mr.  Joseph,  referred  to,  j/f , 

440 
Jacobsen,  Danish  traveller,  referred 

to,  188 
James  I.,  59-60, 243, 244, 254, 308-9. 

312,  396,  401,  402,  429,  431,  433, 

434,  435.  436,  437,  478 
James'  Park,  St.,  291 
Janssen,  Geraert,  sculptor,  231,  333 
Jeanne  d'Arc,  traditions  concerning, 

2Q6-7 

Jenkins,    Thomas,    schoolmaster   at 

Stratford,  102 
Jenks,  Thomas,  of  Aston  Cantlow 

parish,  120 
Jewel  of  Joye^  The,  quoted,  114 
"Job  Cinere-Extractus,"  213 

{ohn,  Bailiff  of  Stratford,  77 
ohn,    Duke    of    Bedford,    son    of 

Henry  IV.,  39 
Johnson,     Gerard.     See     Janssen, 

Geraert 
Johnson,  Samuel,  LL.D.,  48, 373, 421 ; 

his  Life  of  Collins  quoted,  383 ; 

Life  of  Waller  referred  to,  189 
Johnson,  Thomas,  M.D.,  his  additions 

to  Gerard's  Herbail  quoted,  147, 

192 

John's  wort,  St.,  301 
oiners'  Company  at  Stratford,  248 


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INDEX 


503 


Jolyffe»  Thomas,  of  Stratford,  97 
Tones,  Inigo,  278,  413,  419,  430 
Jones,  Thomas,  of  Tardetaigge,  Wor- 
cestershire, 4i»  51 
Jonson,  Ben,  47,  i8<,  236,  277,  278, 
279,  280,  286,  306,  343.  34Sf  346, 
347,  388.  4X2»447;hi» 
Alchemist^  quoted,  jo^,  4S4i  ^^ 
fcrred  to,  278, 435,  438, 471, 472 
Augurs^  Masqiu  of^  quoted,  463 
BarrUrs  at  a  IVMiiif^  described, 

4i9-«> 
B€u^kohmew  Fair^  quoted,  205, 
^7-/^,  454,  4ra:  referred  to, 

Bkuimsst  Mqspu  of,  described, 

414 
Catilituhis  Conspiracy ^  referred  to, 

278 
CkalUnge  at  Tilt,  described,  403, 

405 
CmoirsatUm   with    Drummond, 

quoted,  310-11 
Cyntkufs  Rwils,  quoted,  466-8, 

471 ;  referred  to,  S3 
Divil  is  OH  AsSf  quoted,  465 ;  re- 
ferred to,  310 
Eastward'Hot  referred  to,  478 
Efigrams,  278,  471 
Every  Man  in  his  Humour ,  3^^9-70 
Every  Man  out  of  his  Humour, 

368 
Fortunate  Isles,   Masque  of  the, 

418-19 
Fox,  or  Volpone,  278,  286 
Hymen,  Masque  of,  quoted,  etc., 

398,  404*  410,  480;  described, 

413-18 

Irish  Masque,  described,  403-4 

Magtutic  Lady,  278 

Mercury  Vindicated  from  the  Al- 
chemists, 463 

New  Inn,  quoted,  32 

Poetaster,  The,  471 ;  quoted,  53-4 

Prince  Henry's  Barriers,  quoted, 
424 

Sejanus  his  Fall,  278 

SiUni  Woman,  471,  476,  477»  478, 
481 

Underwoods,  quoted,  230 
Jonsonus  Virbius,  HoweU^  elegy  in, 

referred  to,  278 
Jorden,    Edward,    of    St.    Helen's, 

Bishopsgate,  218 

Jubilee  at  Stratford  in  1769, 447 
ubilee  of  Queen   Victoria  (1887), 
Masque  at  Middle  Temple  during, 
»95 


Jubinal,  Achille,  his  essay  on  La 

Chaise-Dieu  referred  to,  08 
Julia  Strata.    Su  Ryknield  Street 
Julius    CcBsar,      See    Shakespeare, 
William  (i) 


Kawasha,  Indian  god  represented  in 

mascj^ue,  406,  407 
Katharine  of  Aragon,  Queen-Consort 

of  Henry  VIII.,  452 
Keiehtley,  Thomas,  his  Fairy  Myth- 

ohgy  referred  to,  380 
Kemble,  Charles,  actor,  232,  ^7 
Kemble,  John  Philip  and  Stephen, 

232 
Kemp,  William,  actor,  53,  198 . 
Kemys,  Captain  Lawrence,  359 
Kensington.     Su  Gravel  Pits 
Kent,  £dward,  248,  270 
Kent,  Edward,  jun.,  son  of  Edward, 

271 
Kent,  Joanna,  wife  of  Edward,  248, 

270 
Kent,  plAKue  in,  245 
Kentish  Town,  Middlesex,  193 
Kentwell  Hall,  Suffolk,  280,  28/ 
Kerns  of  Ireland,  294 
Kettell,  Rev.  Ralph,  D.D.,  President 

of  Trin.  Coll.,  Oxon.,  184-s,  344-S 
Kiddington,  Oxon.,  184 
Kineton,   Warwickshire,   182,   327, 

328;    informal   club   at,    331-2; 

hundred  of,  64 
KingandNoKing,A.  5/^  Fletcher, 

John 
Kingston,  Mary  Lady,  453 
Kingston  Russel,  Dorset,  323 
King-stone,    near    Long    Compton, 

Warwickshire,  183 
Kington,  West,  Wilts.,  347 
Kipper-nuts,  164 

Kirby,  Monk's,  Warwickshire,  67 
Kirk,  Mrs.,  300 
Kirkham,  Edward,  475 
Kirkman,  Francis,  bookseller,  440 
Klelia  and  Sinibald,    See  Wieland 
Knaves,  The.     See  Rowley,  William 
Knell,  actor,  180 
Knight,  Charles,  quoted,  23 
Kntght  of  the  Burning  Pestle,  The, 

See  Fletcher,  John 
Knightlow  Hill  and  Hundred,  War- 
wickshire, 64 
'*  Knot,"  meaning  of,  331 
Knot  of  Fools,  A,  unidentified  play, 

438,  441,  479,  and  su  Chapman, 

George 


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504 


INDEX 


Knowle,    Warwickshire,    Collegiate 
Church  of,  112 


7'urco-Gracia,  referred  to,  374,  378 
Kyd,  Thomas,  his  Spanish  Trtigiiy, 
quoted,  etc.,  125,  460,  ^i,  ^4 


LAcy,   John,   actor  and   dramatist, 

Lady-smocks,  i5»-9 

Lagartos,  ue.  alligators,  360 

Lake,  Sir  Thomas,  426;  letters  by, 

quoted,  427,  480 
Lamb,  Charles,  quoted,  loi,  441 
Lambert,  Edmund,  of  Barton-on-the- 

Heath,  Warwickshire,  116 
Lambeth,  Surrey,  river-sports  at,  427 ; 

palace-garden  at,  309 
Lampedusa,  island  of,  its  supposed 

connection  with  Temptst,  374-94 
Lancaster,  Earl  o£    See  Thomas 
"  Lands"  in  husbandry,  140-1 
Langbaine,  Gerard,  his  AccwtU  of 

English  Dramatic  Poeis,  quoted, 

etc.,  22,  442,  444,  473,  47^,  and 

x^^Gildon, Charles;  Oldys,  William 
Larks,  methods  of  catching,  153-4 
Latin  School  at  Stratford,  ioo>i 
Laud,  William,  D.D.,  Archbishop  of 

Canterbury,  233,  312,  457 
Lauremberg,  Dutch  farmer,  163 
Lavine  or  Lawne,  William  de.  Doctor 

of  Physic,  456,  458 
LaV,  Mr.,  his  edition  of  Daniel's 

Vision^  etc.,  quoted,  412-3 
Lear^King,  5m Shakespeare^ William 

Leatherhead,  Lanthom,  character  in 

Jonson's  Bartholomew  Fair^  472 
Leathersellers'  Hall,  213,  215 
*•  Leek,"  provincial  word,  421 
Lee  Priory,  Kent,  444 
Leeuwarden,   Holland,  epiUph   at, 

<)uoted,  234 
Leicester,  Earl  ot     See  Dudley,  Sir 

Robert ;  Sidney,  Robert 
Leland,  John,  his  Itinerary  quoted, 

S9;  63.  80,  82,  85,  86.  87.  97,  163. 

164, 188, 189,  I9i,andx*<  Heame, 

Thomas ;  Stow,  John 
I-e    Maire,    Guillaume,    Bishop   of 

Angers,  152 
Le    Neve,    Rev.    John,    his    FasH 

referred  to,  342 
Lennox,  Duke  o£    See  Stuart.  Ludo- 

vick  ' 


Lenten  observances  in  England,  350-1 
Lenton,  Francis,  of  Lincoln's  Inn, 

his  Whirligig  quoted,  46s 
Leo  Africanus,  381 ;  Votfs  transla- 
tion of,  397 
Lepanto,  Ships  at  Battle  of,  291 
Lepers,    bath    for,   at    Bath,    242; 

hospital  for,  at  St.  Giles',  192 
L'Estn^e,  Sir  Roger,  274 
Lewis,  Thomas,  his  Origines  Htbraet 

referred  to,  ^7 
L^den,  John  Ray  at,  155 
"  Leys,"  agricultural  term,  142 
Licences,    Archbishops',    issued    to 

doctors,  302 ;  marriage,  31-6, 254-5 
Lichfield,  Stafibrdshire,  66,  67,  340, 

341,  342 ;  siege  of,  338 
LiddeU,   H.   G.,   D.D.,  and    Scott, 

Robert,  D.D.,  their  Gruk  Lexicon 

dted,  S16 
Lilly  or  Lily,  William,  his  Gram- 

malices  Rmimenta  referred  to,  102 
Limerick.     See  Good,  I. 
Lincohi's  Inn,  196,  245 ;  gentlemen 

of,  431 
Line-trees,  377 

Linneeus,  Carolus,  referred  to,  161 
Lintot,  Bamaby  Bernard,  his  edition 

of  Shakespeare's   poems   quoted, 

59-60 
Lipari,  Islands  of,  380 
liouorice,  used  by  druggists,  264 
Lisle,  Henry  de,  of  Cbpton,  War- 
wickshire, 116 
Lisle,  Baron.    See  Talbot,  John 
Lisle,  Viscount    Su  Sidney,  Robert 
Lisson  Green,  Middlesex,  192 
Livery  of  King's  players,  described, 

478 
Locket,  Besse,  in  Cheshire  tradition, 

156 
Lodchart,  J.  G.,  his  Ltfe  af  Scott 

quoted,  329 
Locko,  Derbyshire,  269 
Lodge,  Thomas,his/?«ja^r>Mb,quoted, 

165,  166,  293 
Lodington  (Luddii^on),  Ralph  de, 

116 
Loftie,  Rev.  W.  J. ,  F.s.  A.,  his  History 

of  London  quoted,  190,  191,  909 
Lomns,  Mr.,  of  Butler^s  Marston, 

V^rwickshire,  332 
Lombard  Street,  Koyal  Exchange  in, 

262 
Long,  Sir  Walter,  260 
Loi^  Compton,  Warwickshire,  183, 

Long  Crendon,  Oxon.,  185 


Digitized  by 


Google 


INDEX 


505 


Loi^  Melford,  Suffolk,  280-2 ;  church 
of;  j^o-7 

Long.purplcs,  157 

Lords,  Thomas,  of  Tiddington,  133 

Louis  XIIL,  King  of  France,  death 
of,  275 

Love,  Alice,  of  Wrozall,  Warwick- 
shire, ZII-12 

Loveday,   John,  his   Tmr  quoted, 
82-3,  160,  183,  184 

"  Love-in-Idleness,"  161 

Lovel,  Thomas,  of  Tiddington,  133 

Low  lyes  a  hUedinge.    Su  Fletcher, 
John 

Lovell,  D.,  translator  of  J.  de  Th^- 
venot's  Voyams^  379 

Lav^i  Labours  Lost,     Su   Shake- 
speare, William  (i) 

Lovt^s  Labour^s   fVon,  question   of 
identity  of,  372-3 

Lowin,  John,  actor,  58,  59,  464,  482 

Lowndes,  W.  T.,  his  Bibiiographit's 
Manttal  reknid  to,  27s,  384 

Lucas,  T.y  of  Stratford,  149 

Lucatella's  Balsam, 

~«ucca.  S 
at,  229 


Lucca.  5#tfBonvisi,  Antonio;  epitaph 


•  301 

,Anto 


Luce,   Mr.   Morton,  his  edition  of 
Tko  Tempost,  referred  to,  146^  164, 

373 
Lucerne,  Dance  of  Death  at,  88 
Lucian,  referred  to,  296 
Lucreci,  Su  Shakespeare,  William  (2) 
Lucy,  Dame  Elizabeth,  43-4 
Lucy  family,  39,  322,  328 ;  coat-of- 

arms  of,  40-1,  42-3,  321 
Lucy,  Mr.,  of  Tiddington,  132,  133 
Lucy,  Sir  Thomas,  38,  40,  41,  42, 

43.  P* 
Lucy,  Sir  Thomas  IIL,  J9,  322 
Lucy,  Sir  William,  44-5 
Luddington,  Warwidcshire,  26,  27, 

64,  102 
Ludgate,  452,  457,  and  su  Martin, 

St.,  churdi  of 
Ludgate  Hill  Railway  Station,  E.C., 

.  ^V 

Lud  s-town,  name  for  London,  69 

Ludwig  of  Nassau,  Count,  436 

Lurchers,  172 

Lydgate,  John,  his  verses  on  the 

Dance  of  Death  refierred  to,  87, 

89 ;  his  London  Lyckpony  quoted, 

324 
Lyllyng,  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Sir 

Nicholas.    Su  Bernard,  Elizabeth 
Lyllyne,  Sir  Nicholas,  of  Abington, 

Northants,  268 


Lyly,  John,  his  Euphtus  quoted,  313 

Lym-hounds,  171 

Lymore,  443 

Lyte,  Henry,  of  Lyte's  Gary,  Somer- 
set, 160 

Lyte,  Isaac,  of  Easton  Piers,  Wilts., 
260 

M 

Macboth,    Su  Shakespeare,  William 
Machabray,  Dance  of.    Su  Dance  of 

Death 
Machin,    Lewis,    477;    his    Dumb 

Kh^hi  referred  to,  460,  and  see 

Markham,  Gervase 
Macklin,  Charles,  actor,  60,  269 
Magdalene     CoUege,     Cambndge, 

Pepysian  Library  at,  449 
Magellan   (Femao   de    Mi^alhaSs), 

^yage  of,  393,  and  su  Pigafetta, 

Antonio 
Magi,  dted  by  Hunter,  386 
Magliabecchi,  299 
Magnetic  Lady^  The,    Su  Jonson, 

Ben 
Maid's  Tragedy^  The.   Su  Fletcher, 

John 
''  Mainour."    Su  Manner 
Main  waring,  Mr.,  of  Stratford,  148, 

149 

"Majesty,"  tide  of,  319 

Malaga  Sack  or  Wine,  285 

Malcontent^The.  5m Marston, John ; 
Webster,  John 

Mallard,  r^erences  to  in  Shakespeare, 
153 

Malmesbury,  Wilts.,  70 ;  hundred  of, 
260 

Malmsey  wine,  259,  286 

Malone,  Edmund,  232;  his  Variorum 
Shakespeare  quoted,  etc.,  22,  22-3, 
26,  27, 28,  37, 38, 43.  49,  »79, 180, 
181,  198,  223,  224,  246,  247,  248, 
aSi,  253*  ^S9*  267,  269,  270,  271, 
3».  384,  3851  399,  400,  421,  442, 
443,  448,  462,  and  frequently  in 
notes 

Malta,  Geoi^e  Sandys  at,  376-7; 
Knights  of;  378;  supposed  trade 
with  Lampedttsa,  376 

Maltese  lapdoes,  171 

Mandeviite^   Traoeis  of  Sir  John^ 

a  noted,  363,  364,  370,  381 
[anner,'^term  in  forest-law,  16&-9 
Manners,  Francis,  K.G.,  sixth  Earl 

of  Rutland,  405 
Manningham,  John,  of  Middle  Tem- 
ple, 200 


Digitized  by 


Google 


506 


INDEX 


Manoa,  dty  and  lake  of,  357,  35^1 

360 
Mansell,  Sir  Robert,  Vice-Admiral 

of  England,  387 
Mansfield,  Notts,  Shakespeares  at, 

109 
''  Man's  life,"  Hunter's  suggestion  as 

to,  381 
Manwood,  John,  of  Lincoln's  Inn, 

his  LavHs  of  the  ForesiqwAed,  166, 

167,  169,  170 
Marabouts.    Su  Hadjis 
Marafion,  river,  360 
Maratti,  Carlo,  447 
Marble  Arch,  W.,  190 
Maria  de'  Medici,  Queen-Consort  of 

Henry  IV.  of  France,  death  of, 

273 
Marian,  Maid,  and  Sweep,  diaracters 

in  anti-masque,  408 
Marignano,  Battle  of,  386 
Marigold,  varieties  of,  159-^ 
Maruiam,  Gervase,  part  author  of 

TJk4  Dumb  JCmgkt^  460^  and  su 

Machin,  Lewis 
Bfark's  Day,  St,  medieval  beliefe 

concerning,  34-5 
Marlowe,  Christopher,  his  part  in 

I  Hemy  K/.,  3;j5 
Marmot,  Califbmian,  365-6 
Marriage  of  Thames  and  Rhine^  The, 

See  Beaumont,  Francis,  Masque  by 
Marryat,    Frederick,    C.B.,    F.R.S., 

captain  R.N.,  quoted,  153 
Mars  hill,  Mars  strete,  381-2 
Marsh,  Mr.,  parson  and  astrologer, 

Marston,  John,  j'j,  his  Cynic  Satire 
quoted,  50;  Dutch  Courtesan^  Or 
Cocledemoy^  478-9 ;  Eastward-Bo. 
See  Jonson,  Ben ;  Insatiate  Coun- 
tess, The,  referred  to,  477 ;  Jach 
Drum^s  Entertainment  referred  to, 
J4  ;  Malcontent,  The,  464,  and  see 
Webster  John ;  Parasitaster,  or  the 
Fawn,  referred  to,  460,  479;  his 
Wonder  of  IVomen,  or  Sophitiisba, 

479 

Martial  de  Paris,  quoted,  996 

Martin,  Richard,  Recorder  of  Lon- 
don, 431 

Martin  -  le  *  Grand,  St,  Collegiate 
church  of,  135 

Martin,  St,  L^dgate,  E.C,  church 
of,  epitaph  in,  96 

Martin,  Outwich,  St,  E.C,  church 
of,  epiUph  in,  234,  235 ;  parish  of, 
210,  211 


Marlon,  Thomas,  of  the  Chapel 
Royal,  471 

Mary  Axe,  St.,  £.C.,  duucfa  and 
lane,  212 

Marylebone,  St,  Middlesei,  190. 
•nd  see  Conduit-heads 

Mary-lilies,  162 

Mary,  Queen  of  England,  her  bene- 
dictions to  Savoy  Ho^tal,  104 

Masques.  .S^r Bacon,  Francis;  Beau- 
mont, Francis ;  Cainpion,  Thomas; 
Chapman,  George ;  I)aniel,Samnel ; 
Gray's  Inn;  Jonson,  Ben. 

Masques,  Shakespeare's  attitude  to, 
411-12;  his  masque  in  The  Tem- 
pest, 145-7,  157 

Massin^er,  Philip,  his  Fatal  Demry 
mentioned,  473,  and  see  Field, 
Nathaniel 

Master  of  the  Game  at  Inner  Temple, 

194 
Mastift,  172 

*<  Mathes,"  weeds  in  com,  313 
Mauley,  £unily  of  de,  thteix  coat-of- 

arms,  321 
Maurice,  Count  Palatine,  K.G.,  436 
Maximilian  I.,  King  of  the  Romans, 

Emperor-dect,  92 
Maydenstone  or  Maydestone,  Walter 

de,    Bishop    of    Worcester,    76, 

3a» 
Mayeme,  Sir  Theodore  Torqoet  de, 

M.D.,  244.  435  ^ 
Meadow-cress,  158 
Measure  for  Measure,     See  Shake- 
speare, ¥^Uiam  (i) 
Medical  Society  of  London,  298 
**  Meers,"  agricultural  term,  141 
Melford.    See  Long  Melford 
MeUificium    Chirurgia,    by  James 

Cooke,  referred  to,  249 
MenachmL  See  Plaotus. 
Menaphon,     See   Greene,    Robert; 

Shakespeare's  use  of  name,  199 
Merchant  of  Fenice,  The.   &«  Shake- 
speare, William  (i) 
Merchant  Taylors'  Hall,  Entertam- 

ment  in,  described  405-6 
Merda,  71 
Mercury   Viudicaied  from   the  Al- 

chemiste.    SeeJooMoa,  Ben 
Mere,  John  le,  of  Blackfriars,  45^ 
Meres,    Rev.   Francis,   his   PaUodis 

Tamia  quoted,  236,  372 
Merridew,  Mr.,  of  Coventry,  Guide 

by,  quoted,  92-3 
'         -^  TilofJldi 


Merry' Devil  of  £dmonton,  The,  re- 
ferred to,  ^^,  438,  440-2 


Digitized  by 


Google 


INDEX 


507 


Mtny  Wivs  of  JVimUor,  The.  Su 
Shakespeare,  WiUiam  (i) 

Middelbuig,  wise-trade  at,  283 

Middleton,  Thomas.  Su  Dekker, 
Thomas 

Midsummif^Nigkfs  Dream^  A,  Se$ 
Shakespeare,  William  (i) 

MHan,  history  of,  supposed  allusions 
to,  in  Tks  Tempest^  381,  385-6 

'*  Milan  skins,"  4SS 

Milford  Haven,  Pembrokeshire,  70-1 

Milliners  in  the  Strand,  4S4r-S 

Minden,  Dance  of  Death  at,  88 

Mines  in  Wales,  480 

Minsheu,  John,  his  Ductarin  Lmguas 
cjuoted,  141,  i^ 

MirandoU,  Miranda  and,  j8s 

Mirrha^  ths  Motlur  of  Adorns^  by 
William  Barkstead.  477 

Misfortunes  of  Arthur,  Tko.  Su 
Hughes,  Thomas 

Mislonde,  Esay,  servant  to  Leven 
Vsnderstylt,  2x7 

Missenden,  Great  and  Little,  189; 
priory  at  Great,  189 

**  Mistress,"  title  of,  245 

Mithridate,  322 

Modwenna,  St.,  96 

Monarchicike  Tn^edus,  Su  Alexan- 
der, Sir  William 

"  Monster,"  special  use  of  word,  370-1 

Montagu,  Tames,  Bishop  of  Win- 
chester (formerly  Bath  and  Wells), 

430 
Montafi[ue,  John,  F.R.S.,  4th  Earl  of 

Sandwich,  376 
Montaiene,  Michel  Eyquem,  Seigneur 

de,  his  Essays.    Site  Florio,  John 
Montgomery,  Earl  o£    Su  Herbert, 

Sir  Philip 
Montpellier,  medical  school  at,  240, 

304 
"  Moon-dog,"  172 
Moore,  Norman,  M.D.,  his  essay  on 

Prince  Henry's  death  referred  to, 

Moro  of  PoMue,  TAo,  play,  probably 

OtAollo,  439 
More,  Sir  lliomas,  at  Crosby  PUce, 

Bishopsgate,  208,  209 ;  his  Uto^ 

quoted,  jop 
More,  Sir  William,  453*  45^ 
Morley,  Professor  Henry,  quoted,  a/4 
Morley,    Thomas,    of  St   Helen's, 

Bishopsgate,  218 
Morris-dancing,  408 
Morrison,  Richard,  lord  of  the  manor 

of  Snitterfield,  108 


Morso/iif  ''comfortable  and  delicate 
meates,"  203 

Mortimer,  Edmund,  5th  Earl  of 
March,  335-6 

Morton,  John,  Cardinal,  D.C.L.,  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  319 

Moryson,  Henry,  referred  to  by 
Hunter,  367 

Much  Ado  about  Nothing,  SuShakit- 
speare,  William  (i) 

Mulmutius,  British  king,  69,  70 

Mum,  Brunswick,  283 

Mundungus,  in  tobacco,  205 

Mur,  river  in  Styria,  367 

Murano,  glass  from,  322 

Murray's  ffasuibooh  to  Eastern  Coun- 
ties,  referred  to,  2S1 ;  Handbook  to 
Warwickshire^  quoted,  etc.,  64^  66, 

So,  133,33' 
Murray,  Sir  James,  478 
Muscadel  wme,  281,  286 
Muse^   Looking 'Glass,    The.     Su 

Randolph,  Rev.  Thomas 

N 

Nantwich,  Cheshire,  158 

Napier  or  Napper,  Rev.  Richard,  of 

Great  Unford,  Bucks.,  ^ 
Naples,  histonr  of,  supposed  references 

to  in  The  Tempest,  381,  385 
'*Napsof  Greece,  old  John,^'  127,  128 
Nares,  Robert,  Archdeacon  of  Staf- 
ford, his  Glossary  referred  to,  182, 

SOS,  ^'f  ^^  -»*»  ^A  4S4t  4S7* 

4^ 
Naseby,  Northants,  134 ;  Battle  of,  299 
Nash  or  Nashe,  Anthony,  of  Wel- 

combe,   Warwickshire,    fiither   of 

Thomas  (2),  226,  244 
Nash,  Edward,  cousin  of  Thomas  (2), 

266,  267,  270,  271 
Nash,  Elizabeth.  5m  Barnard,  Dame 

Elizabeth 
Nash  or  Nashe,  John,  mentioned  in 

Shakespeare's  will,  226 
Nash  or  Nashe,  Thomas  (i),  of  St 

John's  Coll. ,  Cambridge,  his  preface 

to  Menaphon  quoted,  22^  and  su 

Greene,  Robert ;  his  Pierce  PomU^ 

ikxM  quoted,  365 
Nash,  Thomas  (2),  of  Stratford,  first 

husband  of  Elizabeth,  60,  244,  245, 

246,  247,  248,  251,  266 
Nash,  Thomas  (3),  son  of  Edward, 

267 
Nason,  John,  apothecary,  of  Strat* 

ford,  264 


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So8 


INDEX 


Na^land,  Sufifolk,  monament  at,  321 
Neil,  Samuel,  his  Home  of  Shake- 

speart  ouoted,  92,  103,  251 
Nennias,  British  prince,  legend  of, 

69 

Nether  Stowey,  Somerset,  271,  and 

see  Walker,  Sir  Edward 
Neville,  Anne,  Countess  of  Warwick, 

wife  of  Richard,  336 
Neville,  Richard,  ICG.,  Earl  of  War- 
wick and  Salisbury,  jp,  336,  337 
Newark-on*Trent,  remams  of  Dance 

of  ]>eath  at,  8S 
Newbuigh,  Henry  de,   ist  Earl  of 

Warwick,  107,  ill 
Newburgh,  Roger  de,  2nd  Earl  of 

Warwick,  107 
*•  New  Diswtfe,"  the,  425 
Now  English  Dictionary ^  referred  to, 

142,  soi-2, 316 
Newmarket,  King  James  I.  at,  434 
Newnham,  Thomas,  priest,  of  Shot- 

tery,  story  of,  135-0 
New  Place,  Shakespeare's  house  at 

Stratford,  218,  226^  227,  245,  248, 

268,  270,  271,  272 
Newsham,   Charles,   of  Chadshunt, 

Warwickshire,  331 
Newton,  Prof.  Alfred,  referred  to,  151 
Newton,  Thomas,  D.D.,  Bishop  of 

Bristol,  48 
Niccols,  Richard,  his  Tmynnes  TVago- 

die  mentioned,  441 1  442 
Nice  Valour^  The.   See  Fletcher,  John 
Nichols,  John,  448 ;  his  Progresses  of 

Queen  Eliiabeih  referred  to,  /^, 

262-3  >  ^  Progresses  of  James  L 

referred  to,  3^^  401,  and  in  notes, 

40i''36  passim 
Nichols    (?  Niccols),    Richard,    The 

FurieSf  by,  quoted,  474 
Nicodemus,  Gospel  oi^  93 
Nicosia,  Cyprus,  epitaph  at,  quoted, 

"  ^flco8iana,''  name  for  tobacco,  204 
Night-crow,  Night-raven,  154-6 
"Night  of  Errors,  the,*'  197-* 
NobU  Genileman,  The.  .Slr^  Fletcher, 

John 
NidUman,    The,   unidentified   play, 

439.  441 
Norden,  John,  his  Speculum  Briton- 

niety  quoted,  190 
Norembm,  name  of  Virginia,  204 
North,  Sir  John,  letter  of  Howell  to, 

296-7 
North,  Sir  Thomas,  his  translation  of 

Plutarch,  quoted,  314-15 


Northampton,  Earl  o£  Se^Compton, 
William ;  Howard,  Henry 

Northamptonshire,  proverb  concern- 
ing, 268 

Northumberland  House,  fire  at,  448 

Northward-No.   5^  Dekker,  Thomas 

Nottingham,  Earl  of^  Su  Howard, 
Sir  Qiarles 

Numidian  crane,  the,  375 

Nuncupative  will,  its  character,  246 


Oannes,  fish-god  of  the  Euphrates, 

388 
Oar,  golden,  presented  by  Raleigh  to 

James  I.,  358 
Ocellct^  nickname  for  small-eyed  men, 

284 
Odcombe,   Somerset,    128,   and  su 

Coryat,  Thomas 
Offi^  King  of  Merda,  135 
Oldcastle,   Sir  John,   styled   Baron 

Cobham,  282,  446 
Oldenburg,  invisible  smith  o£    Su 

Hiller,  the 
"Old  Free-town,"  382 
Old  Town,  street  in  Stratford,  225 
Oldys,  William,  Norroy  king-of-arms, 

21,  22,  37,  41,  42,  47,^1,  59,  358, 

44X>  442.  444.  445.  448,  449 ;  and 

su  Yeowell,  James 
Olivares,  Caspar  de  Guzman,  Conde- 

Duque  de,  292 
"  Once  aeaine,"  modus  hibendi^  310 
O'Neill,  Hugh,  2nd  Earl  of  Tyrone, 

a9S 
Open-field    system    of  agriculture, 

134-5 
Orchestra,     Su  Davies,  Sir  John 
Ordinances  against  play-acting,  456 
Orellana,  Francisco,  360 
Orford,    Earl    of.       Su    Walpole, 

Horace 
Origines  H^frceet.  .Sf«  Lewis,  Thomas 
Orinoco,  River,  358, 359, 360, 363, 365 
Orleans,  Howell  at,  296 ;  white  wine 

of,  260 
Orleton,  Herefordshire,  142 
Ormonde,    Duke    of.     Su    Butler, 

James 
Ostler,  William,  actor,  471,  472, 476, 

4«3 
OtheOo.  5«ffShakespeare,Wimam(i) 
Otter-hounds,  171 
Overbury,  Sir  Thomas,  398,  409-10, 

425*  437  i  b»  Characters  quoted, 

xi3»4a3 


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INDEX 


509 


Ovid,   quoted,  236,  279 ;  copy  of, 

possibly  Shakespeare's,  247;  and 

see  Golding,  Arthur 
Oxford,  184 ;  James  I.  at,  396 
Oxford,  Earl  of.    See  Harley ;  Vere, 

de 
Oysters,  fondness  of  Prince  Henry 

for,  308 


Paddington,    Middlesex,    165,    192, 

263 
Page,  Sir  Francis,  judge,  194 
Paeet,  A^es,  Mistress  of  the  Strat- 
ford guild,  her  tomb,  83,  86 
**  Painted  cloths,"  121-2 
Painter,    William,    his    Palace    of 

Pleasure,  479 
Palamon  tmd  Arcyte.    See  Edwards, 

Richard 
Palladis  Tamia.    See  Meres,  Rev. 

Francis 
Palma,  Sack  from,  286 
Palmer,  Adam,   witness  of   Robert 

Arden's  will,  7/9,  X20 
Palsgrave.      Su    Frederick,    Count 

Palatine 
Pamphilus,  St.,  338 
Pansies,  161-2 
Pappus  (potato),  204 
Paracelsus,  Philippus  Aureolns,  l^end 

of,  390 
Parasitaster,    See  Marston,  John 
Paris,  Dance  of  Death  at  Notre  Dame, 

87  ;  medical  school  at,  240 
Paris  Garden,  bear-pit  and  theatre, 

168,  472 
Parker,  Sir  William,  his  History  of 

Long  Melford  referred  to,  a8i 
Parliament-chamber,  in  Blackfriars, 

453 
Parr,  Mr.,  of  Blackfriars,  embroiderer 

to  Elizabeth  and  James  I.,  431 
Pasture,  rights  of,  144-5 
Patay,  Battle  of,  296 
Pathetic  fdlacy  in  Shakespeare,  421-2 
Pathlow,   liberty  of,  Warwickshire, 

64,  77.  "5.  143 

Paul's  St,  children  of,  464, 470, 472 ; 
Dance  of  Death  at,  87 

Pauw,  C.  de,  his  R^herches  quoted, 
365,  366 

Pavane,  408 

Pavy,  Salathiel,  child  of  the  Chapel 
Royal,  466,  469,  471 

Pawn,  the,  part  of  the  Royal  Ex- 
change, 262,  4S5 

Payne,  Mr.  £.  J.,  referred  to,  j6/ 


Peacham,  Henry,  of  Wymondham, 
Norfolk,  428 

Peele,  George,  his  Arraignment  of 
Paris  Quoted,  147 

Peeres,  Mr.,  of  Alveston,  Warwick- 
shire, 331 

Pembridge,  Hereford.  See  Sher- 
burne, Rev.  Dr. 

Pembroke,  Countess,  Earl  of.  See 
Herbert,  Mary,  Sir  Philip,  etc. 

Pembroke  and  Striguil,  medieval 
Earls  of,  68 

Pembroke  House,  Aldersgate  Street, 
E.C,  209 

Penn,  William,  actor,  477-8 

Pennant,  Thomas,  referred  to,  25 

Peole,  Mr.,  of  St.  Helen's  parish, 
Bishopsgate,  218 

Pepys,  Samuel,  his  Diary  quoted,  56, 
57,  331 ;  his  Ubrary,  448-9 

Percy,  Thomas,  D.D.,  Bishop  of 
Dromore,  448 

Pericles,  Prince  of  Tyre,  See  Shake- 
speare, William  (i) 

Penwigs,  Dr.  Kettdl  s  opinion  of,  344 

Pestilence  of  1593,  4^ 

Peter  the  Poor,  St,  210;  monument 
in,  108 

Petitions  against  Blackfriars  Theatre, 

455-7 
Petrarca,  Francesco,  letter  to  Fran- 
cesco Bruni  by,  ouoted,  87-8 
Petre,  William ;  4th  Baron  Petre,  his 

house  in  Alderseate  Street,  301 
Pett,  Peter,  commissioner  of  the  navy, 

331 
"Petum"  or  "Petun,"  name  of  to- 
bacco, 204 
Phaer,  Thomas,  M.D.,  237  ;  hb  trans- 
lation of  Virgil  quoted,  389,  475 
Phelip,  Sir  Edward,  Master  of  the 

Rolls,  431 
Philaster,    Su  Fletcher,  Tohn 
Philip  I.,  Archduke  of  Austria  and 

King  of  Castile,  323 
Philip  the  Good,  Duke  of  Burgundy, 

125-6 
Phillipps,  Sir  Thomas,  Bart.,  30 
Phillips,  Augustine,  actor,  48,  53 
Phipps,  Mr.,  surgeon,  305 
Phoenix  Theatre,  or  Cockpit,  451 
Physic  Garden  at  Oxford,  299 
Piccard,  Nieuhoff,  Dutch  artist,  89 
*"  Pickadill,"  form  of  ruff,  432 
Pierce  Penniless^  Supplication.     See 

Nash  or  Nashe,  Thomas  (1) 
Pierrepont,  Henry,  xst  Marquess  of 
Dorchester,  301 


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5IO 


INDEX 


Pigafetta,  Antonio,  his  IVimo  Viaggio^ 

refierred  to,  jgj 
Pig-nuts,  164,  192 
Pilgrim  Street,  B.a,  and  the  Pilgrims' 

Way,  451 
"  Pink-eyed, "  meaning  of,  2S4 
Pinks,  162 

"  Pion^d,"  meaning  of,  146-7 
Pipe  office  and  rolls,  455,  458 
Pique-devtmt  beards,  325 
Pitt,   William,    witness   of    Robert 

Arden's  will,  120 
PUu€ntukt^  ''comfortable  and  deli- 
cate meates,"  203 
Plague,  epidemics  of,  245 
Plato,     Apologia    SoaraHs    quoted, 

237-8 
Piatt,  Sir  Hugh,  his  Jewell  House 

quoted,  283-4 
Plautus,  Monackmi  oli^  197 ;  English 

translation  of  referred  to,  198 
Players,  Acts  of  EiizabeUi  against 

stroUinjg,  98-9 
Piinv,  Hisioria  Naturalis  referred  to, 

303,  366  ;  and  soo  Holland,  Phile- 
mon 
PoccAontas,  Virginian  princess,daugh- 

ter  of  Powhatan,  407 
Poe,  Edgar  Allan,  quoted,  151 
Poetaster,  The.    .S^  Jonson,  1 
Poincy,  L.  ^^^Ya&Histoiredes  Antilles 

Quoted,  371 
Pollard,  Thomas,  actor,  481^  482 
Pomeranian  dogs,  171 
Pons,  .Dr.  Jacques,  of  Lyons,  his 

work  on  bleeding,  244 
Pontefract,  Yorkshire,  liquorice  grown 

at,  264 
Pope,  actor,  53 
Pope,  Alexander,  referred  to,  47,  48, 

236,  343 
Popham,  Captain,  letters  discovered 


orlock,  S< 


Porlock,  Somerset.  See  Ward,  Rev. 
Hamnett 

Porter,  Hugh,  of  Snitterfield,  War- 
wickshire, iig 

Porter,  Captain  Thomas,  letter  from 
Howell  to,  287 

Portugal  Row,  W.C,  Duke  of  York's 
Theatre  in,  461 

Portugal,  wine  trade  of,  284 

Pory,  John,  letter  by,  to  Sir  Robert 
Cotton,  quoted,  397.  398.  413-IS 

Post  Revels,  195 

"Potan."    5^  Powhatan 

Potatoes,  202-3 

Poultry,  E.C.,  262-3 


Powhatan,  Emperor  of  Virginia,  407, 

43a 
Powis,  Marquess  of.     Su  Herbert, 

William  (2) 
Prague,  Battle  of  (1620),  424 
Pr^ciputs,  custom  of,  228 
Preston  Deanery,  Northants,  268 
Pricket,  buck  of  second  year,  170 
Printing- House  Square,  E.C,  452 
Prior,  Life  of  Maione^  quoted,  447-8 
Private  theatres,   451 ;    their  pecu- 
liarities, 463-4 
Probus,  Emperor,  14$ 
Profanity  in  plays,  444 
Prologue,  customs  of,  465 
Prospero,Huntei^s  theories  as  to,  388-9 
Ptolemy,  astronomer,  315 
Pudding  Lane,  E.C,  274 
Puddle  Dock,  E.C.,  452 
Pueri  Pauperes  at  Oxford,  340 
Puritan^     The,     anonymous    pUy, 

quoted,  340 
"  Furpoole,  Prince  of,"  195,  196, 199 
Pylius,  i.e,  Nestor,  236 
Pythagoras,  Shakespearean  allusiQns 

to,  295-6 
Pytheas  of  Marseilles,  380 


"Quack,"  the  lesser  heron,  155 

Quarles,  publisher,  313 

Queen  Square,  Bloomsbury.  See 
George,  St.,  church  'of 

Queen  Victoria  Street,  E.C,  451 

"Queeny"  (Quiney),  Mrs.,  of  Strat- 
ford, perhaps  wife  of  Thomas  (2) 
Quiney,  252,  261,  262 

Quiuey,  Adrian  (i),  180 

Quiney,  Adrian  (2),  Bailiff  of  Strat- 
ford, son  of  Adrian  (i),  254 

Quiney,  Adrian  (3),  son  of  Richard  ( i ), 

354 
Quiney,  Anne,  daughter  of  Richard 

(r),  254 
Quiney,    Bartholomew,    draper,    of 

Fleet  Street,  180 
Quiney,     Elizabeth    (i),     wife     of 

Richard  (i),  258 
Quiney,  Elizabeth  (2),  daughter  of 

Richard  (i),  254 
Quiney  frunily  in  Isle  of  Man,  180 
Quiney,    Rev.    George,    curate,    of 

Stratford,  son  of  Richard  (i),  240, 

254,265 
Quiney,   Judith,    nie    Shakespeare, 

wife  of  Thomas  (i),  27,  131,  223-7 

passim,  2^2-6^  passim 


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INDEX 


5" 


Qniney,  Maiy,  daughter  of  Richard  ( i ), 

254 
Qttiney,  Richard  (i),  Bailiff  of  Stmt- 

ford,  son  of  Adrian  (i),  42,  135, 

179,    180,   219,    252,    253,    254, 

258 
Qnin^,  Richard  (2),  grocer  in  Buck* 

lersbory,  son  of  Richard  (i),  181, 

254,  259,  261,  267 
Qniney,  Richard  (3),  son  of  Thomas 

(0,  259 
Quiney,  Shakespeare,  son  of  Thomas 

(I),  259 

Quiney,  Thomas  (i),  vintner,  of  Strat- 
ford, son  of  Richard  (i),  27, 252-67 
passim 

Quiney,  Thomas  (2),  son  of  Richard 
(2),  261,  262 

Quiney,  Iliomas  (3),  son  of  Thomas 

(I),  2S9 
Quiney,  William  (i),  son  of  Richard 

(0,  254 
Quiney,  William  (2),  of  Shottery,  son 

of  Richard  (2),  262 
"Quiny,"     Mr.,     probably     Rev. 

George  Quiney,  265 

R 

Rabelais,  Fran9ois,  his  Pantagnul 

quoted,  144 
RaW,  John,  of  Wrozall,  11 1 
Radcliffe,  Sir  Robert,  5th  Earl  of 

Sussex,  nephew  of  Sir  Thomas, 

419 
Radcliffe,  Sir  Thomas,  3rd  Earl  of 

Sussex,  his  players,  99 
Ragged  robin,  157 
Ral^h,  Carew,  son  of  Sir  Walter, 

letter  of  Howell  to,  359 
Ralegh,  Sir  Walter,  his  voyage  to 

Guiana,  357^ 
Ralph.    Su  Stratford,  Ralph  de 
Ramel,  Henrv,  Chancellor  of  Den- 
mark, his  visit  to  London,  206 
Ramnsio,    Giovanni    Battista,     his 

RaccoUa^  etc.,  referred  to,  3^3 
Randolph,  Rev.  Thomas,  his  Afuse^ 

Looktng'GlcLss  quoted,  261,  454^ 

459 

"  Rascal  Jacks,"  nickname  for  a  class 
of  undergraduates,  345 

Rastell,  John,  his  Termes  cU  la  Ley 
quoted,  33 

Rawlinson,  Rt.  Rev.  Richard,  D.C.L., 
449  J  hisMSS.,  449,  47^ 

Ray,  John,  of  Trinity  Coll.,  Cam- 
bridge, his  Collection  of  English 


W&rds    quoted,    156,     421 ;    his 

7rav//j  quoted,  155,  161,  162,163; 

his  Wisdom  of  God  f^fAedi^  367 
Raya  Indians,  36$ 
Raynoldes,   William,    mentioned   in 

Shakespeare's  will,  226 
Reade,    William,    of    St.    Helen's, 

Bishopseate,  216 
Reading,  Abbey  of,  129,  132 
Records.      See  Bath,   Stratford -on- 

Avon 
Red  Bull  Inn  and  Theatre,  Clerken- 

well.  211,  459,  478 
"  Red  Lion,"  sign  of  shop  in  Buck- 

lersbury,  262 
Redman,  Robert,  printer,  303 
Reed,  Isaac,  editor  of  Shakespeare, 

445 
"  Reed,"  technical  meaning  of,  147 
Rehearsal^  The,   Su  Villiers,  George 
Renialmire,   Ascanio  de,  of  Black- 
friars,  456 
Replingham,  Mr.,  of  Stratford,  149 
Return  from  Parnassus,  T^y  quoted, 

54 

Revels,  Children  of  the.  See  Children 
of  the  Revels 

Rhenish  wines,  283,  285 

Rhyon-Clifford,  Warwickshire,  251 

Ribbisford,  or  Ribbesford,  Worcester- 
shire, 443 

Rich,  Sir  Robert,  Baron  Rich  (after- 
wards 2nd  Earl  of  Warwick),  letter 
of  his  wife  referred  to,  433 

Richard  II.  and  the  estate  of  Shottery, 


136 
^ichar 


Richard  //. ,  King,  See  Shakespeare, 

WilUam  (i) 
Richard    III.,   occupier   of  Crosby 

Place,  208 
Richard  11/.,   King,      See   Shake- 
speare, William  (i) 
Ridiard,  Norman,  owner  of  Wroxall, 

no 
Richardson,  John,  fJEurmer,  of  Shottery, 

24.  36 
Richmond  and  Lennox,  Duchess  of. 

See  Stuart,  Frances 
Richmond,  Surrey,  Prince  Henry  at, 

308 
Rider,  William,  his  Tkuins  referred 

to,  441-2 
Rimbault,  E.  F.,  Mus.  Doc.,  F.S.A., 

his  ed.  of  Old  Cheque-Booh,  etc, 

quoted.     See   Chapel  Royal,   Old 

Cheque-Booh  of 
Rivers,  Earl  and  Countess  of.     Su 

Savage,  Thomas  (2) 


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5" 


INDEX 


River  sports  at  Princess  Elizabeth's 

wedding,  427-^ 
Roaring  l»y,  character  in  anti-masque, 

40S 
Robert.    See  Stratford,  Robert  de 
Roberts,  Goody,  of  Stratford,  305 
Roberts,  Griffith,  m.d.,  his    IVeisk 

Grammar  referred  to,  279 
Robertson,  William,  D.D.,  his  CharUs 

V,  referred  to,  J79 
Robin  Hood,  165 
Robinson,  Frances,  Lady,  valentine 

by  Howell  addressed  to,  quoted, 

292 
Robinson,  John,  of  Blackfriars,  227, 

456 
Robinson,   John,    of    St.    Helen's, 

Bishopsgate,  and  his  monument, 

216 
Robinson,  John,  of  Stratford,  230 
Robinson,  Richard,  actor,  482 

Robinson,  Sir ,  of  Stratford,  342 

Robinson,  William,  of  St.  Helen's, 

Bishopsgate,  213,  218 
Robinson,   Winifred,   probably  wife 

of  Richard,  482,  483 
Rochelle,  La,  green  wine  from,  285 
Rocque's  Survey  of  London,  referred 

to,  447 
Rodd,  Thomas,  jun.,  374 ;  his  edition 

of  Dowdall's  letter  quoted,  etc., 

327,  328-30,  ^J^ 
Rogers,  John,  idiot,  of  Rowington, 

Warwickshire,  131 
R^ers,  Joseph,  of  Stratford,  son  of 

Thomas  (i)  323 
Rogers,  Philip,  of  Stratford,  323 
Rogers,  Thomas  (i),  of  Stratford,  323 
Rogers,  Thomas  (2),  son  of  Thomas 

(I),  323 
Rollo  the  Norw^ian,  coronation  of, 

183 
RoUright,  Little,  Oxon.,  and  stones, 

183 
Rolls  House  in  Chancery  Lane,  431 
Romeo  and/tUiei,    See  Shakespeare, 

William  (I ) 
*'  Rook,  to,"  meaning  of,  242 
"  Rooky  wood,"  meaningof,  155-6 
Rosalynde.    See  Lodge,  Thomas 
Roscius  Anglicanus,     See  Downes, 

John 
Rose  Theatre,  368,  477,  478 
Rosemary,  medical  use  of,  264 
Ross  or  Rous,  John,  his  account  of 

Earls  of  Warwick  referred  to,  335 
Rouen, death  of  Richard(Beauchamp), 

Earl  of  Warwick,  at,  334 


Rous  or  Rouse,  Frauds,  M.P.,  story 
of,  325-6 ;  his  Tkule  quoted,  235 

Rowe,  Nicholas,  his  Lt/e  of  Shake- 
speare quoted,  22,  27-8,  38,  41, 48, 

49.353 
Rowington,  Warwickshire,  no,  129; 

manor  of,  129-34,  142-3,  '57 
Rowley,  William,  his  Knaves  referred 

to,  434 ;  his  Spamsk  Gipsy  quoted, 

169 
Royston,  Herts.,  James  I.  at,  406, 

434,  437 
Russell,  Elizabeth,  Baroness  Russell, 

456 
Russell,  fJEimily  of,  rise  of,  323 
Russell,  Mr.,  of  Stratford,  322 
Russell,  Sir  John,  k.g.,  1st  Earl  of 

Bedford,  323 
Russell,  Thomas,  of  Stratford,  226, 

32a 

Russet,  152-3 

"  Russet -pated,"  meaning  of,  15 1-3 

Rutland,    Earl   of.      See   Manners, 

Francis 
Ryknield  Street,  65,  66,  67-71 
Rymer,  Thomas,  of  Gray's  Inn,  his 

Tragedies  of  the  Last  Age  quoted, 

440 

S 

Sabel,  Dr.,  of  Warwick,  305 

Sack,  varieties  of,  285-6;  Ward's 
story  of,  300 

Sackerson,  bear  at  Paris  Garden, 
168 

Sadler,  Elizabeth.  i'M  Walker,  Eliza- 
beth 

Sadler,  Hamnet,  of  Stratford,  181, 
223,  226,  230 

Sadler,  John,  of  Bucklersbury,  E.C., 
i8x,  182,  262,  267 

Sadler,  Judith,  wife  of  Hamnet,  181, 
223 

Sage,  use  as  a  drug,  264 

Salisbury  Court  Theatre,  441,  451 

Salisbury,  Dance  of  Death  at,  88-9 

Salisbury,  Earl  of.  Su  Cecil,  Sir 
Robert,  and  Neville,  Richard 

Sallows,  166 

Salt-boiliiug;  at  Droitwich,  Worcester- 
shire, X03 

Saltonstall,  Sir  Richard,  Lord  Mayor 
of  London,  215 

Salzburg,  outbreak  of  goitre  at,  366 

Sampson,  chemist  in  Smithfield,  301, 

358 
Sandells,  Fulk,  former,  of  Shottery, 

34.36 


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INDEX 


513 


Sanderson,  John,  Turkey  merchant, 

367 
Sandwich,  Earl  of.    See  Montagu, 

John 
Sandys,  George,  his  RehUion  of  a 

Journey  quoted,  287,  376-7 
Santa  Cruz  de  la  Palma,  wine  from, 

286 
Saraband,  408 

Satiromastix,    See  Dekker,  Thomas 
Satyrs,  366 
Saussurite,  360 
Savage,  lliomas  (i).  Baron  Savage, 

281,^^ 
Savage,  Thomas  (2),  Earl  of  Rivers, 

son  of  Thomas  (i),  281 
Savile,  Sir  Henry,  warden  of  Merton 

Coll.,  Oxon.,  396 
Savov,   Duke   of,    his   ambassador, 

438 ;  and  su  Carlo  Emanuele 
Savoy  Hospital,  104 
Saxony,  beer  in,  283 
Scarborough  or  Scarburgh,  Sir  Charles, 

M.D.,  F.R.S.,  P.R.C.P.,  301 
Scarlet  or  Skerlett,  John,  of  Snitter- 

field,  //^,  120 
Scenery  in  theatres,  461-3 
Schonbub,  Louis.   See  Fontaine,  Jean 
S(Aoo/ 0/ Recreation,  avioied,  174,  175 
SdoU  or  Sciol.    S^  Cioll 
''Scobberlotchers,"  nickname  for  a 

class  of  undergraduates,  345 
Scotland  Yard,  432 
Scott,  Sir  Walter,  Bart.,   story  of. 

See  Lockhart,  J.  G. 
Scottarit,  ancient  form  of  Shottery, 

135 
Scrope,  — ,  Countess  of  Sunderland, 

letter  of  Howell  to,  409 
Scudamore,  Sir  Clement,  181 
Scudamore,  Helen,  wife  of  Stephen, 

181,  182 
Scudamore,  Stephen,  vintner,  of  St 

Stephen's,  Coleman  Street,  181 
Scylla  and  Charybdis,  288 
Sea-holly  or  eringo,  203 
Sedrida,  Qqeen  of  Mercia,  72,  73 
Sejanus  his  Fail,    See  Jonson,  Ben 
Selden,  John,  bencher  of  the  Inner 

Temple,  his  De  Diis  Syriis,  387-8 ; 

letter  to  Jonson  quoted,  388 
Serpentine,  source  of  the,  190 
Sevenhuys,  near  Leyden,  John  Ray 

at,  155 
Severn,  Charles,  M.D.,  his  pre&ce  to 

Ward's  Diary  quoted,  etc.,  230, 

^j^,  261,  298-9;  and  see  Appendix 
Sewer,  meaning  of  the  word,  423 

a  L 


Seymour,  Sir  Edward,  K.G.,  Duke 

of  Somerset,  87 
Sforza,  Francesco,  Duke  of  Milan, 

son  of  Ludovico,  386 
Sforza,  Ludovico,  Duke  of  Milan, 

38s.  3^ 
Sforza,  Massimiliano,  Duke  of  Milan, 

son  of  Ludovico,  385 
"Shadow"  in  theatres,  462-3 
Shadwell,  Thomas,  346 
Shaftesbury,  Earl  of.    See  Cooper, 

Anthony  Ashley 
Shakespeare,  Agnes,  wife  of  William 

(3)»  "a 
Shakespeare,  Anne,  wife  of  William 

(0,  26-18  passim,  227,  231 ;  her 

grave,   82;   inscription   on    tomb 

quoted,  eta,  228-9 
Shakespeare,   Antony,   of   Wroxall, 

son  of  John  (4),  x  1 1 
Shakespeare,  Ellen  (afterwards  Baker), 

wife  of  John  (4),  ill 
Shakespeare,  Gilbert,  son  of  John  (2), 

51.  52,  140 
Shakespeare,  George,  of  Rowington, 

130 
Shakespeare,  Hamnet,  son  of  William 

(i),  223,  224 
Shakespeare,  Henry,  of  Snitterfield, 

son  of  Richard  (2),  112 
Shakespeare,    Isabella,    prioress    of 

Wroxall,  III 
Shakespeare,  Joan,  daughter  of  John 

(2).     See  Hart,  Joan 
Shakespeare,  John  (i),  of  Rowington, 

ijo 
Shakespeare,  John  (2),  son  of  Richard 

(2),  iBailiff  of  Stratford,  22,  31,  74, 

75»  78»  79,  X04, 107, 112,  113,  120, 

179,  224,  348,  349 
Shi^espeare,  John  (3),  of  Stratford, 

shoemaker,  21,  iio 
Shakespeare,  John  (4),  of  Wroxall, 

III,  112 
Shakespeare,  John  (5),  of  Wroxall, 

no 
Shakespeare,    Judith,    daughter    of 

William  ( I ).     See  Quiney,  Judith 
Shakespeare,  Laurence,  of  Balsall, 

no 
Shakespeare,  Mary  {nJe  Arden),  wife 

of  John  (2),  25,  116,  120,  122,  224 
Shakespeare,  Richard  (i),  of  Rowing- 
ton,  130 
Shakespeare,  Richard  (2),  of  Snitter- 
field, 107,  no,  112,  116 
Shakespeare,  Richard  (3),  of  Wroxall, 

no,  112 


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514 


INDEX 


Shakespeare,  Roger,  monk  of  Bordes- 
ley,  109 

Shakespeare,  Susanna,  daughter  of 
William  (I).    Su  Hall,  Susanna 

Shakespeare,  Thomas  (i),  of  Rowing- 
ton,  130 

Shakespeare,  Thomas  (2),  Bailiff,  of 
Warwick,  no 

Shakespeare,  Thomas  (3),  shoemaker, 
of  Warwick,  no 

Shakespeare,  William  (i),  son  of 
John  (2),  his  birth  and  baptism, 
22-5 ;  his  marriage,  26-38 ;  deer- 
stealing  legend,  38-45 ;  the  Dave- 
nant  legend,  45-7,  347-8 ;  journey 
to  and  arrival  in  London,  38, 
179-82 ;  his  traditional  brigade  of 
horse-boys,  48-51 ;  as  an  actor, 
traditions  of,  51-9;  a  member  of 
James  Burbage*s  company,  483; 
alleged  letter  to,  from  James  I., 
59-So ;  his  connection  with  Wilm- 
cote,  123-8;  his  copyhold  in  manor 
of  Rowington,  130,  131,  226,  256; 
his  interest  in  the  Stratford  tithes, 
135,  253 ;  his  interest  in  the  Strat- 
ford common-fields,  i;39-40,  142 ; 
his  protest  against  mclosure  of 
Welcombe  field,  148-9  ;prol3ably 

Sesent  at  Coniedy  of  Errors  in 
rav's  Inn  (1594),  190;  with  actors 
at  Greenwich  Palace,  198;  possibly 
a  householder  in  St.  Helen's, 
Bishopsgate,  205-6,  214,  2x8-20; 
a  householder  in  Blackfriars,  205, 
227,  456;  his  will,  131-2,  224, 
225, 226, 227, 228, 229, 230, 255-7 ; 
his  death  and  burial,  210-1 ;  his 
grave  and  monument,  fe,  230-9, 
332-3,  541-2;  Ward's  notes  on 
and  stones  of,  306-13;  Aubrey's 
stories  of,  345-8 ;  Aubrey's  butcher- 
boy  story,  348-53;  subsequent 
reputation  of,  442 
Shakespeare,  William  (i),  plays  and 
I>oems  of,  references  to  and  quota- 
tions from — 
AlVs  Weil  that  Ends  fVell,  167, 

372,  43S>  444»  ^.  and  see  Bad 

Beginning  makes  a  Good  Endings 

A,  and  Lov^s  Labouf^s  Won 
Antony  and  Cleopatra^  141,   153, 

284,  295-6,  469 
As  You  L^  It,  32,  37,  I2I-2,  123, 

143, 165, 166, 293,  295, 352,  386, 

464 
Comedy  of  Errors^  196,  197,  198, 

199.  372,  382,  433 


Coriolanus^  156,  167,  469 
Cymbeline,  6^  69, 70,  71,  159, 167, 

291,292 
Hamkt,  56-7,  58,  59,  90,  99,  100, 

146, 153.  IS7, 161, 167, 283, 292, 

304»  30$.  324-$»  329.  335^  343, 

464 
Henry  IV,  ^  King,  part  i.,  S4,  122, 

168,  77/,  182,  212,  259, 313,  388. 

445 
Henry  I V,,  King,  part  iL,  84,  121, 

128, 143, 182. 196, 212, 255,  286, 

337.  352.  445-6,  467 
Henry  K,  King,  143,  146,  149, 

*S7%  1^1   »6i,  168,  171,  265, 

3X7f  3*3»9»3^t445 
Henry  VI.,  King,  part  i.,  44>  45» 

29o»  335.  336.  462 
Henry  VI,  AYn^,  part  ii.,  32,  72, 

280,  316, 317, 318,  336, 337, 350, 

351 
Henry  VL^  King,  part  iii,  154, 

169,  207,  242 

Henri^  VI IL,  King,  57,  58.  W, 
208,  329,  411,  450,  4S2,  463 

JuHus  Casar,  237,  315,  442-3 

Lear,  King,  124,  143,  156,  158, 
160,  161,  1 70-1,  172,  340-1 

Lotfe's  Labour^ s  Last,  loi,  102, 124, 

131. 145, 150.  IS3»  158.  159. 167, 

169, 170, 190, 202, 224, 238, 291, 

335.  352»  372.  380. 382,  412,468 

Lucrece,  119,  123,  180,  313 

Macbeth,  122,  155,  156.  172,  J/^ 

329 
Measurefor  Measure,  128, 187,259, 

351 
Merchant  of  Venice,  The,  32J,  443 
Merry  IVives  of  Windsor,  The,  42, 

102,  122, 156, 167, 168, 203,  264, 

324,  331,  349,  362,  436,  445 
Midsummer 'Uight* 5    Dream,    A, 

150, 151. 153.  »6i,  173. 176, 184, 

185,  186,  372,  421,  445 
Much  Ado  about  Nothing,  79,  80, 

153.  '54-5,  186,  187,  224,  263, 

372,  438,  444-5 
Othello,  232,  263,  290,  364 
PericUs,  202,  313,  407 
Richard  I L,King^84, 91,  lOi,  186, 

308 
Richard  IIL,  King,  43,  44>  207. 

219.  3>6,  319 
Romeo  and Julut,  gi,  156,  239, 351, 

382,  460 
Sonnets,  37, 38, 90, 96, 101-2, 145. 

ISO,  159,  237, 238, 241,  263, 314, 

3251  329,  335 


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INDEX 


515 


Taming  ofihs  Sknw,  64-S.  79»  99. 
125,  126, 127, 128, 173, 174, 17s, 
324 

Tempest,  58,  144,  145,  146,  147, 
154,  157,  164,  239,  286,  288, 
302, 3x3. 324, 357, 361,  362»  370, 
373, 376, 378, 381, 38«.  389, 390, 
391, 392, 393.  394, 398, 402, 404, 
409. 410, 41 1, 414, 420, 421, 422, 
423,  432, 434, 435, 437, 439, 444, 
448, 450, 4«>i  461, 462, 463,  ^, 
474,  475 

Timon  of  Athens,  142,  /f/,  243, 
412 

Titus  Andnmicus,  102 

Troilus  and  Crtssida,  237 

Twelfth  Night,  103, 200, 224,  230, 

_296,  3SI,  409,  445 

Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona,  144, 1 70, 

.  3>4.  352,  372,  420 

Venus  and  Adonis,  141,  153,  154, 
174,  180,  2j8,  313 

Winter's  Tale,    144,  162,  185-6, 
439,  443 
Shakespeare,  William  (2),  of  Temple 

Grafton,  Warwickshire,  34 
Shakespeare,  William  (3),  of  War- 
wick, probably  son  of  Thomas  (3), 

no 
Shakespeare,  William  (4),  of  WroxaU, 

IIS 

Shanks,  John,  actor,  482,  483,  484 
Shaw,  Julius,  of  Stratford,  230 
Sheffield,  John,  ist  Duke  of  Bucking- 
hamshire, 59,  60 
Shenstone,  Staffordshire,  67 
Sherburne,  Rev.  Dr.,  of  Pembridge, 

Herefordshire,  347 
Sherley,  John,  printer,  249 
Sherry,  285,  286 
Shiels,  Robert,  49 
Shilleto,  A.  R. ,  his  edition  of  Burton's 

Anatomy  quoted,  146 
Shipston-on-Stour,  Warwickshire,  182 
Shirley,James,  dramatist,  185 ;  quoted, 

i$7 

Shoe  Lane,  Berkeley  Mansion  in, 

193 
"  Shooty,  brave  Master,"  meaning  of 

allusion,  128 
Shoreditch.     See  Curtain  Theatre, 

Green  Curtain  play-house,  Theatre, 

the;    tradition   of   Shakespeare's 

residence  near,  206 
Shottery,  135,  136,  245,  261,  266, 

and  see  Hathaway,  Anne,  etc. 
Shrewsbury,  Earl  of.     See  Talbot, 

Gilbert 


Shuckborough  or  Shuckbureh,  Sir 
Richard,  of  Shuckburgh,  Warwick- 
shire, 321 

Sicily  and  its  Islands,  See  Smyth, 
Admiral  W.  H. 

Sicily,  origin  of  fumitory  in,  161 

Siddons,  Sarah,  n/e  Kemble,  actress, 
232 

Sidney,  Mary.    See  Herbert,  Mary 

Sidney,  Sir  PhiUp,  50,  209,  337,  33^; 
his  Apohgiefor  Poetrie  quoted,  ^t ; 
his  Arcadia  quoted,  loi,  173 

Sidney,  Robert,  Earl  of  Leicester  and 
Viscount  Lisle,  192 

Siege  of  Rhodes,  The.  See  Davenant, 
Sir  William 

Silent  Woman,  The.  5;r»Jonson,Ben 

Silius  Italicus,  his  Punica  referred 
to,  236 

Simpson,  Giles,  court  goldsmith,  431 

Sims,  James,  M.D.,  297 

Sinklow,  actor,  169,  ^ 


Sipai)o,  River,  36c 
cis  Drake. 


See  Davenant, 


sir  Francis  . 

Sir  William 
**  Sizings,"  word  in  use  at  Cambridge, 

340 
Skeat,  Prof.  W.  W.,   Litt.  D.,   his 

Specimens  of  English  Literature 

referred  10,324 
Skelton,  John,  his  Bonge  of  Conrte 

referredf  to,  46J 
Skerlett,  John.    See  Scarlet,  John 
Skidmore.    Su  Scudamore 
"Skyrrits   of   Peru,"  synonym    for 

potatoes,  203 
Sly,  Stephen,  of  Stratford,  127 
Sly,  William,  actor,  464,  466 
Smith,  Cecil,  his  Birds  of  Somerset- 
shire wioted^  152 
Smith,  £.  Toulmin,  English  Guilds, 

referred  to,  83 
Smith,  Hamlet,  of  Stratford,  181, 224 
Smith,  Helen,  sister  of  Hamlet.    See 

Scudamore,  Helen 
Smith,  Henry,  of  Stratford,  270 
Smith,  John,  actor,  477,  478 
Smithfield,  182 
Smug  the  Smith,  282,  408 ;  synonym 

for  Merry  Detnl  of  Edmonton,  440 
Smyth,  John,  his  Lioes  of  the  Berkeley s 

quoted,  193 
Smyth,  Admiral  W.  H.,  his  Sicily 

and  its  Islands  quoted,  374,  375» 

376,  377 
Snitterfield,  Warwickshire,  107-16 
Snoade,  Mr.,  of  St.  Helen's  parish, 

Bishopsgate,  218 


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5i6 


INDEX 


Socrates,  236,  237-8 

Solinus,  referred  to,  366 

Somerset,  Duke  of.    Su  Seymour, 

Sir  Edward 
Somerset,  Earl  of.     See  Carr,  Robert 
Somerset,  Edward,  K.G.,  4th  Earl  of 

Worcester,  son  of  William,  419 
Somerset,  William,  K.G.,  3rd  Earl  of 

Worcester,  his  players,  99,  100 
Somerville,  family  of,  321 
Somner,  William,  hu  Dictionarium 

referred  to,  339 
Sonnets,  See  Shakespeare,  William  ( i ) 
Sophia,  Electress  of  Hanover,  424 
Sophonisba^  Tragedy  of,  5«MMarston, 

John 
Sore,  Sorel,  names  given  to  bucks, 

170 
Southall,  Middlesex,  190 
Southampton,Earlo£  .S'<f«Wriothesley, 

Henry 
Southwell,  Edward,  letter  by  Dowdall 

addressed  to,  328 
Spadafora,  Placido,  his  Patronymica 

referred  to,  236-7 
Spain,  Potatoes  in,  203 
Spain,  Queen  oil    See  Elizabeth  (3) 
Spaniels,  water-spaniels,  172 
Spanish   Gipsy,    The.    See  Rowley, 

WilUam 
Spanish   Tragedy,   The.     See  Kyd, 

Thomas 
Specchio  del  Mare,     See  Coronelli, 

Vincenzo 
Spedding,  James,  795,  196 ;  his  Life 

of  Bacon  quoted,  ig6 
Speed,  John,  his  Historu,  etc. ,  quoted, 

208 ;  his  Theatre,  etc.,  quoted,  163 
Spence,   Joseph,   his   Anecdotes  re- 
ferred to,  47 
Spencer,   Dame  Alice,   wife  of  Sir 

John,  210 
Spencer,   Elizabeth.     See  Compton, 

Elizabeth 
Spencer,  Sir  John,  Lord  Mayor  of 

London,  209,  210,  215 
Spenser,    Edmund,    447,    476;   his 

Fcurie  Queene  quoted,   146,  241, 

361  ;   Shepheards  CcUender,   146 ; 

View  of  Ireland,  2^ 
Spider,  legend  of,  and  unicorn's  horn, 

302 
Spirit,  sketch  of,  as  represented  on 

stage,  419 
Spleen-stones,  360 
Sauacco  heron,  155 
"Stable-stand,"  term  in  forest-law, 

169 


Stage,    in    private    theatres,    459; 

covering     of.      See     "  Heavens," 

Shadow ;    custom   of  sitting   on, 

465-8 
Stags  from  Denmark,  437 
Stand,  shooting  from  the,  169 
Stangate,  in  Lambeth,  427 
Stanhope,  Sir  John,  1st  Baron  Stan- 
hope of  Harrmgton,  436,  437,  438, 

446,  447,  448 
Stanley,    Ferdinando,    5th    Earl   of 

Derby    and    Baron    Strange,    his 

players,  100 
Stanley,  Henry,  K.G.,  4th  Earl  of 

Derby,  his  players,  100 
Starch,  yellow,  410,  454 
Stationers'  Register,  referred  to,  440 
Steele,  Sir  Ridiard,  57 
Steelyard,  282 
Steevens,    George,    F.R.S.,    F.S.A., 

quoted,  etc.,  3^,  237,  437-S.  444, 

445.447 
Stephen,  St.,  Coleman  Street,  parish 

of,  181 
Stilton,    Matthew,  of  St.    Helen's, 

Bishop^te,  217 
Stirling,  Earl  ol   See  Alexander,  Sir 

WilBam 
Stone,  Nicholas,  master-mason,  447 
"  Stooming  '*  of  wine,  285 
Stopes,  Mrs.  C.  C,,\\ei  Shakespear^s 

Family  referred  to,  225,  248 
Stour,  River,  in  Warwickshire,  67, 

68,  183 
"  Stover,    meaning  of,  147 
Stow,  John,  his  Annals  quoted,  210 ; 

his  Survey  of  London  quoted,  etc., 

85,  86,  87,  96,  104,  109,  152-3, 

192,  193,  206,  207,  208,  209,  210, 

211,  212,  213,  214,  216,  219,  263, 

45»*  453.  4SS 

Stow-on-the-Wold,  Gloucestershire. 
See  Ward,  Rev.  Thomas 

Strachey,  William,  of  Gray's  Inn,  his 
Virginia  quoted,  407-8 

Strange,  Baron.  See  Stanley,  Fer- 
dinando 

Stratford  -  on  -  Avon,  Warwickshire, 
63-104;  account  of,  by  Dowdall, 
332-3;  meaning  of  name,  320; 
records  referred  to,  100,  102,  156, 
258  ;  register  referred  to,  324 

Stratford,  John  de.  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  80,  84,  85 

Stratford,  Old,  Warwickshire,  135, 
140 

Stratford,  Ralph  de.  Bishop  of  Lon- 
don, 80 


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INDEX 


517 


Stratford,    Robert    de,    Bishop    of 

Chichester,  80^  S4,  85,  135 
Strawberry  HiU,  Walpole^s  library 

at,  447 
Streeche,  Dame  Isabel,  wife  of  Sir 


John  (1),  I3< 
treec 
»35 


Streeche,  Sir  John  (i),  of  Shottery, 


Streeche,  Sir  John  (a),  son  of  Sir 

John  (I),  13s 
Street-Ashton,  Warwickshire,  67 
Stretibrd,  hundred  of,  Herefordshire, 

aa8 
Stretton-OQ-Dunsmore,  Warwickshire, 

Stretton-on-the-Fo8s,  Warwickshire, 

Stretton-nnder-Fosse,  Warwickshire, 

Str^gml,  castle  of,  Monmouthshire,  t8 
Stromboli,  island  of,  380 
Struma^  or  goUrt^  367 
Stype,  John,  referred  to,  114,  191 
Stuart,  Arabella,  289 
Stuart,  Frances,   Duchess  of  Rich- 
mond and  L«nnox,  302 
Stuart,  Ludovick,  and  Duke  of  Lennox, 

405>  419 
"  Study  of  books,"  use  of  phrase,  247 
Stukely,  Rev.  William,  M.D.,  etc., 

of  St.  George's,  Queen  Square,  304 
Sturley,  Abraham,  of  Stratford,  letter 

by,  quoted,  135,  219,  252-3,  260 
Subsidy  of  1598,  assessment  of,  206, 

and  see  Assi^sment 
SufiroIk,£arlof.  5««  Howard, Thomas 
Sugar,  mixed  with  sack,  285,  286 
Sully,  Maximilien  de  B^thune,  Due 

de,  in  London,  210 
Sunderland,  Countess  o£  i^Scrope — 
SuppUctUion  of  the  Poor  Commons^ 

quoted,  166 
Sussex,  Earl  of.    .S^  Radcliffe,  Sir 

Robert  and  Sir  Thomas 
Sutton  Coldfield,  Warwickshire,  67, 

122,  125,  15s,  262 
Swan  Inn  at  Stratford,  324 
Swanne,  Mr.,  surgeon,  308 
Swansea,  Glamorganshire,  287 
Swanston,  Heliard,  actor,  ^j.  4S1 
Swayne,    Edward,    of   St    Helen's 

parish,  Bishopseate,  217 
Sycorax,  Hunters  theories  concern- 

Sydenham,  Thomas,  M.D.,  299-300 
Sylvester,  Josuah,  his  translation  of 
Du     Bairtas     quoted,    4SS  i    his 
Tobacco  BcUUred  quoted,  260 

2  L  2 


SymhoUograpkU,   5«#  West,  William 
Symonds,  Ralph,  his  Diary  quoted, 

273.  3*1 
Symons,  Thomas,  skinner,  alderman  s 

deputy  for  Bishopsgate  ward,  215 
Syrian  wolves,  293 


Tabard  Inn,  Southwark,  453 

Talbot,  Charles,  Baron  Talbot  of 
Hensol,  Lord  Chancellor,  194 

Talbot,  Gilbert,  7th  Earl  of  Shrews- 
bury, 206 

Talbot,  J[ohn,  Baron  Lble  of  King- 
ston Usle,  ^ 

Talbots,  English  dogs,  174 

*' Talsheids,^  equivalent  to  feggots, 

Tamworthy  72 

Tanner,  Thomas,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  St. 

Asaph,  his  NotUia  Monastka  re- 
ferred to,  189 
Tanners'  Act  of  1530,  350 
Tardebigge,  Worcestershire,  41 
*'  Tarrarags,"  nickname  for  a  class  of 

undergraduates,  345 
Taunton,  coat-of-arms  of,  321 
Tavbtock  Abbey,  Devon,  323 
Taylor,  Joseph,  actor,  56,  58,  59,  482 
Taylor,  Baron,  his  Voyages  referred 

to,  89 
Taylor,  John,  the  water-poet,  quoted, 

^j,  98^.32^,404,4^3 
Taylor,  Dr.  Richard,  of  St.  Helen's 

parish,  Bishopsgate,  2x7 
Tensest,    The,      See   Shakespeare, 

William  (i) 
Temple  Grafton,  Warwickshire,  34, 

35 
Temple,  Inner,  solemn  revels  at,  194 ; 

masque  o(,  and  Gray's  Inn.    See 

Beaumont,  Francis. 
Temple,  Middle,  masques  and  revels 

at,  195,  200 ;  gentlemen  of,  431 
Tennis  Court  Theatre,  461 
Tennyson,  Alfred,  first  Baron  Tenny- 
son, quoted,  155.  «S7.  1581  4«2 
Terriers,  171 
Thame,  Oxon.,  185 
'*Tharborough"  or  *'thirdborough," 

meaningof,  124 
Theatre,  The,  Shoreditch,  50,  180, 

483 
Theobald,  Lewis,  i46-7>  373 
Theobalds  Park,  Herts.,  437 
Th^enot,  Jean  de,  his  Voyages  ou 

Levant  quoted,  378-9 


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518 


INDEX 


Thomas,  Earl  of  Lancaster,  brother 

of  Edward  I.,  152 
Thompson,  John,  actor,  482 
Thoms,  W.  J.,  F.S.A.,  has  Ansed&tes 

quoted,  312 
Thomey  Abbey,  Cambridgeshire,  333 
Threadneedle  Street,  E.C.,  234 
Throckmorton,  Sir  Robert,  321 
Thumam,  John,  M.D.,  F.R.C.P.,  his 

tract  on  IVayUmd  Smiih  referred 

to»  380 
Thwattes,  Rev.  Edward,  of  Queen's 

ColL,  Ozon.,  letter  by,  quoted,  339 
Thynne,  Ladylsabella,  344 
Tiddington,  Warwickshire,  farm  o( 

129,  133-4 
TimoH  of  Athens.    See  Shakespeare^ 

William  (I) 
Tippling  Acts,  258 
Tithe-bam  at  Stratford,  los 
Tithes,  story  concerning,  325-6 ;  the 

Stratford,  135 
Tithing-man.    See  Headborongfa 
Titus  Andronicus,   See  Shakespeare, 

William  (i) 
Tobacco,  varieties  of,  204 
"  Toil,"  sporting  term,  167 
**  Tokens''  of  pestilence,  468,  ^ 
Tomatoes,  202 

Tomlins,  Goody,  of  Stratford,  301 
Tommasi  £unily  of  Palermo,  375 
Toon,  Stephen,  apothecary,  of  Oxford, 

Topago,  Provinces  of,  360 

Topcfiffe,  Yorkshire,  404 

Topsell,  Rev.  Edward,  his  Sist^rie 

if  Feure'fioted  Beastes  referred  to, 

366 
Tortttgus^     turtles,     mentioned     by 

Ralegh,  360 
Tartura  oris,  Elizabeth  Hall's  attack 

of,  243 
Tothill,  William,  his  Transaawm  of 

Ckisiuery  ^3^X,tA^  148 
Totnes,  Earl  and  Countess  of.    Se4 

Carew,  Sir  George  and  Joyce 
Tottel,  Richard,  publisher,  89 
Tower  of  London,  Dance  of  Death 

in,  88 
Town-hall  at  Stratford,  New,  98 
Townsend,  Thomas,  of  Tiddington, 

133 
Trapani,  in  Sicily,  379 
Trapp,  Rev.  John,  otWeston-on-Avon 

and  Welford,  Warwickshire,  241 
Trapp,  Rev.  Simon,  of  Stratford,  246 
TrtoHule  into  Virginia,  SsrStnchey, 

William 


**  Traverse  "  on  stage  of  theatres,  461 

Treacle,  Venice,  322 

Treasurer  of  the  Chamber,  oflice  of, 

437 
Trenchard,  Sir  Thomas,  323 
Trinidada  tobacco,  or  Trinu&do,  204, 

466 
"Trqglodytic"  caves  at  Lampedosa, 

375 
Trowbridge,  Wilts.,  134 
Tumbler  dogs,  172 
Tumblers,  companies  of^  99 
TurcO'Grrecia,    Su  Kraus,  Martin 
Tomer,  Mrs.  Anne,  409-10,  4^5 
Tumor,   Dr.   Peter,  of  St.   Helen's 

pariab,  Bishopsgate,  217 
Turnspit  dogs,  172 
Turpentine,  Venice,  301 
Turquil  the  Saxon,  107 
Tmemh  Night.     See  Shakespeare, 

William  (I) 
"  Twilled,"  meaning  of,  146 
Twins,  The,    See  Nicools,  Richard; 

Rider,  William 
Two    GtntUtnen    of   Verona,      See 

Shakespeare,  William  (l) 
Two  Wise  Men  and  Alt  tho  JUst 

Fools i  anonymous  play,  441 
Tyara,  Peter,  epitaph  of,  at  Leeu- 

warden,  234 
Tyburn,  Middlesex,  190,  191,  410 
lycho  Brahe,  315 

' '  Tyings,"  agncoltural  term,  14a,  144 
Tyler,  Dorothy,  of  Shottery,  42 
Tyndale,  William,  his  version  of  the 

Bible  referred  to,  382 
Typhoid  fever  and  typhus,  varieties 

of,  307t  308,  425 

U 
"  Uncape,"  sporting  term,  167 
Underwood,  John,  actor,  4j6iS,  467, 

469,  471-2,  473,  476,  482,  483 
Unicorn's  hom,  legends  eoncemin^ 

302 
Uniformity,  Act  of  (1662),  262 
Union  Street,  E.C,  452 
**  Unkennel,**  sporting  term,  167 
Urban  V.,  Pope,  304 
Urban  of  Belluno,  236 
Urso  d'Habetot,  Lord  of  Wilmcote, 

Warwickshire,  115 
Utopia,    See  More,  Sir  Thomas 
*' Utter-barristers"   of   the   Middle 

Temple,  200 
Uvedale,  Sir  William,  437 
Uxbridge,  Middlesex,  189-^ 


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INDEX 


519 


Vale»  Robert  de,  of  Wilmcote,  116 
VakmtimaH.    Ssi  Fletcher,  John 
Volar  Ecclesiasticus  (1534),  112 
Vanderstylt,  Leven,  of  St.  Helen's 

parish,  Bishopsgate,  217 
Varro,   M.   Terentius,  Jonson's  ob- 
ligations to,  416 
Vai^han,  Henry,  *«  Silurist,**  185 
Vaoghan,  William,  LL.D.,  his  Golden 

(Sw§  quoted,  25 
Venables,  Rev.  Edmtmd,  precentor 

of  Lincoln,  referred  to,  s^S 
Venice,   Howell   at,    30i,   287-92; 

players  from,  in  England,  289 
Venner,  Tobias,  m.d.,  his  Balks  of 

Bathe  quoted,  etc.,  242,  28s  ;  his 

Via  Recta  quoted,  259,  260,  26 1, 

264-S,  28s,  286 
Venm  and  Adonis,   5«#  Shakespeare, 

William  (I) 
Vere,  Aubrey  de,  son  of  John,  281 
Vere,  John  de,  12th  Earl  of  Oxford, 

a8i 
Vere,  Lady  Susan  de,  daughter  of 

Edward,  17th  Earl  of  Oxford,  397 
Verity,  Mr.  A.  W.,  referred  to,  473-4 
Vemey,  Sir  Richard,  149 
"  Veronesa,"  ship  of  Verona,  290 
Vertue,  George,  engraver,  his  MSS., 

400,  438,  442,  444,  446-9 
Verulam,  Roman  road  at,  65 
Villafranca.    5;«  «  Old  Free-Town  " 
ViUiers,  Sir  George,  K.6.,  1st  Duke 

of  Buckingham,  244,  4C39 
Villiers,  George^  2nd  Duke  of  Buck- 
ingham, The  Rehearsal,  chiefly  by. 

Quoted,  58 
Villon,  Francois,  quoted,  296 
Vincent  of  Beanvais,  his  Speculum 

referred  to,  363 
Vincent's  Well,   St,  near   Bristol* 

241 
Vine  Inn,  in  Bishopsgate  Street,  2X1 
Vine,  The,  near  Basing,  Hants.,  /^ 
Vines  in  England,  145 
Vmtners'  Company,  records  of,  re- 

ferr^  to,  i8x 
Violets  in  Shakespeare's  plays,  162 
Virgil,  legends  concerning,  386 
^nrgil,  translation  of,  quoted.    See 

Fhaer,  Thomas 
Virginia,  tobacco  from,  204 
Virtue,  George,  National  Gaeetteer, 

published  ^,  referred  to,  j8j 
Vision  of  the  Twehe  Goddesses,    See 

Daniel,  Samuel 


Vives,  Johannes  LudovicuS,  d.cl., 

of  CCC,  Oxon.,  125 
Voisy,  Veysey,  Voysey,  or  Harman, 

John,    LL.D.,   Bishop  of  Exeter, 

125 

Voragine,  Jacobus  de,  Archbishop  of 
Genoa,  his  Aurea  Legenda^  93,  94 

W 

Wake,  William,  D.D.,  Archbishop  of 

Canterbury,  449 
Walford,  Edward,  his  Greater  London 

referred  to,  342 
Walker,  Barbara.  5tf^Clopton,Dame 

Barbara 
Walker,  Sir  Edward,  Garter  King-of- 

Arms,  271,  272,  273,  274 
Walker,  Elizabeth,  i>/#  Sadler,  l8l 
Walker,  Mr.,  Nonconformist  divine 

at  Ilmiiulon,  Warwickshire,  241 
Walker,  William,  godson  of  Shake- 
speare, 226 
Wall  (Letocetum),  near  Lichfield,  66 
Waller,   Edmund,    185,    344,    348  ^ 

quoted,  439 
Wallingford,   Berks.,  pestilence   at, 

308 
Walpole,  Horace,  4th  Earl  of  Orford, 

443i  447 

Walter.  See  Cantelupe,  Grey,  May- 
denstone,  Walter  de 

Wanley,  Humphrey,  340 

Warburton,  William,  D.D.,  Bishop  of 
Gloucester,  quoted,  41 X 

Ward,  A.  W.,  Litt.  D.,  his  English 
Dramatic  Literature  referredf  to, 
S0,S4y S9y  ^Sy  335i  439^  443^  445^ 
457,  ^rt  4^4,  473,  477 

Ward,  Rev.  Hamnett,  M.D.,  of  Por- 
lodc,  Somerset,  304 

Ward,  Rev.  John,  Vicar,  of  Stratford- 
on-Avon,  his  J>iary  quoted,  225, 
229.  235,  236,  240,  244,  247,  252, 
254,  261,  262,  264,  265,  268,  272, 
275, 274, 280, 283,  298-326 /««»r, 

35f .  425.  430 

Ward,  John,  actor,  232 

Ward,  Rev.  Thomas,  of  Stow-on-the- 
Wold,  Gloucestershire,  313 

Warde  Barnes,  near  Wilmcote,  War- 
wickshire, 116 

Wardrobe,  King's,  St.  Andrew's  Hill, 


E.C  452,  456 

y,  Robert, 
cester. 


Warmstry7  Robert,  notary,  of  Wor- 
cester, 36 

Warner,  John,  parish  derk  of  St 
Helen's,  Bishopsgate,  21  x 


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INDEX 


Warton,  Rev.  Thomas,  B.D.,  383-4 ; 
his  History  of  English  Poe^ 
quoted,  384 

Warwick,  188 ;  assizes  at,  149,  328 ; 
collegiate  church  of  St.  Mary  at, 
I07>  334;  Carls  of.  5«#  Beaucfaamp, 
Dudley,  Edward,  GreviUe,  Neville, 
Newburgh,  Rich;  epitaph  at, 
quoted,  235,  238 ; 

"Warwick's  Unds,"  X08 

Warwickshire,  its  divisions,  6^,  163 ; 
Laud's  visitation  of,  233 

Washburn,  Mr. ,  of  Oriel  ColL ,  Oxon« , 
quoted  by  Ward,  254,  430 

Water  Lane,  E.C.,  45i>  45^ 

Watling  Street,  course  of  Roman 
road,  65-6 

WatU,  Richard,  of  Rhyon-Clifford, 
Warwickshire,  251 

Waugh,  John,  tutor  of  Queen's  ColL, 
Ozon.,  142 

Wayland  Smith,  legend  of,  380 

Wealden  of  Warwidcshire,  163 

Webb,  Agnes.    Su  Arden,  Agnes 

Webster,  John,  his  induction  to  The 
MeUcomUnt  quoted,  4^4^  464^  466, 
and  se4  Marston,  John ;  his  fVhiU 
Devil  quoted,  j/^  ;  his  Northward' 
BbukdfVdsttoard'Bb,  .S^Dekker, 
Thomas 

Welcker,  F.  T.,  his  Syll^  Bpi- 
grammaium  quoted,  234,  235 

Welcombe,  Warwickshire,  127,  135, 
140,  X48 

Wellesboume  Mountford,  Warwick- 
shire, izi 

Wendover,  Bucks.,  188 

West,  Thomas,  of  Snitterfield,  War- 
wickshire, X08 

West,  William,  of  the  Middle  Temple, 
his  SymboUographii  referred  to, 
367-8 

Westboume  Brook,  Middlesex,  190 

Westminster,  roads  from  Tyburn  to, 

191 
Westney,  Richard,  churchwarden  of 

St.  Helen's,  Bishopsgate,  213 
Weston-on- Avon,  Gloucestershire,  26, 

27f  36 
Wistward'ffo.    5^  Dekker,  Thomas 
Whatcot,  Robert,  of  Stratford,  230 
Whately,  Anne,  of  Temple  Grafton, 

Warwickshire,  34 
Wheat,  price  of,  in  1598,  219 
Wheadey,  Oxon.,  i^i 
Wheler,  R.  B.,  his  History  of  Strat- 
ford tt^ned  to,  etc.,  60,  139,  232, 

233 


'*  Whii&ers*'  at  theatres,  197 
<' Whispering  Knights,"  the,  at  Roll- 
right,  Oxon.,  183 
White  Lake,  the,  in  Guiana,  358 
White,  Robert,  portraits  of  James 

Cooke  by,  249 
Whitefriars  Theatre,  426,  427,  451, 

471,  476,  480,  481 
Whitehall  Palace,  Dance  of  Death  at^ 

89 ;  Masque  of  Flowers  performed 

at,  195;  weddings,  masques,  and 

plays  at,  395-449  passim^  478 
Whitehall  Stairs,  sham  sea-fight  off, 

427-8 ;  procession  at,  432 
White  Hart  Inn,  at  Lichfield,  341 
Whitgift,  John,  D.D.,  Archbishop  of 

Canterbury   (formerly   Bishop  of 

Worcester),  33,  36 
Whitlow-grass,  192 
Wieland,  Christoph  Martin,  Kklia 

andSimbaldoU  referred  to,  377-8 
Wild-fowl,  breeding  of,  etc.,  ischi 
Wilkes,  Mr.,  interview   of    Capell 

with,  41.  51 
Willes,  Richard,  his  translation  of 

Pigafetta's  Viaggio^sg^ 
WUlim  IL,  107 
William.    Seo  Blois,  William  de 
Willughby,  Francis,  F.R.S.,  155 
Wilmcote,    Warwickshire,    €^    77, 

11S-16,  119,  "3-8,  173,  174 
Wilson,  Anne,  nde  Hathaway,  wife 

of  WUliam,  26 
Wilson,  Arthur,  his  History  quoted, 

etc,  395,  39^1  399.  411 
Wilson,  Mrs.,  of  Stratford,  241 
Wilson,  Rev.  Thomas,  B.D.,  Vicar, 

of  Stratford*  233 
Wilson,  Mr.,  Nonconformist  divine 

at  Stratford,  241 
Winchoomb,  Tideman  de.  Bishop  of 

Worcester,  303 
Winchester  House,  432 
Winchester  pipes,  205 
V^cote.    See  WiUnoote 
VHndle,  Prof.  B.  C  A.,  M.D.,  P.S.A., 

etc.,  his  Shakospear^s  Country  re« 

ferred  to,  9o 
Windsor,  installation  of  the  Elector 

Frederick  in  St  George's  Chapel 

at,  436 
Winfirith,  hundred  of,  Dorset,  124 
Winter's  plan  of  Stratford,  referred 

to,  142 
Winterboume,  Gloucestershire,  jo^ 
mnter^s    TaU,     See   Shakespeare, 

William  (i) 
Winwood,  Sir  Ralph,  letter  of  Sir  D. 


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521 


CarletoQ  to,  414 ;  letters  of  Cham- 
berlain to,  426,  431,  434,  435 

Wither,  George,  his  StgAs  for  the 
Pitchers  quoted,  315 

Wits^  The.  See  Davenant,  Sir 
William 

Wixford,  Warwickshire,  67 

Wobura  Abbey,  Beds.,  323 

Wolsey,  Thomas,  Cardinal,  Arch- 
bishop of  York,  452 

Wolves,  l^ends  of,  293-5 

Woman's  Bridgeat  Aylesbury,  Bucks. , 
188 

Weman-Haier^  The.  See  Fletcher, 
John 

freman  is  a  JVeathercoch,  A,  See 
Field,  Nathaniel 

Woncot    See  WilmcDte 

fVofuUrofWomen^  The.  5k«Marston, 
John 

Wood,  Anthony  i,  his  Athena  quoted, 
46,  176,  185,^96 

Woodstock,  Oxon.,  184 

Woodward  family  of  Butler's  Marston, 
Warwickshire,  sji 

Worcester,  i6j ;  Bishops  of,  their 
privileges  at  Stratford,  71-^ ;  Earls 
of,  see  Beauchamp,  Richard  (2); 
Somerset,  Edward  and  William 

Worcestershire,  hunting  in,  175 

Worms,  death  of  Lord  Harington  of 
Ezton  at,  436 


Wortley  Hall,  Gloucestershire,  Dance 

of  Death  at,  88 
**  Wo  worthe  the,  Lenttone,"  ballad, 

quoted,  351 
Wrestlers   Inn,   Bishopsgate   Street, 

211 
Wright,   James,   his   Historia  His- 

tnonica  quoted,  56,  461,  473 
Wright,   Nathaniel,  of  St   Helen's 

parish,  Bishopsgate,  213 
Wright,   Thomas,   F.S.A.,   351;  his 

Dictumary  ^o\.t!di^  134,  141 
Wriothesley,  Henry,  k.g,,  3rd  Earl 

of  Southampton,  192,  199,  399 
Wroxall,  Warwickshire,  no- 12 
Wrozeter  (Viroconium),  Shropshire, 

66 


Yams,  203 

Yeowell,  Tames,  his  Memeir  of  Oldys 

referrea  to,  447 
York,  James,  Duke  of,  his  theatre. 

Su  Portugal  Row 
Yorkshire,  broom-groves  in,  146 
Ypres,  ware  of,  122 
Yvor,  St.,  295 


Zoa,  supposed  city  of,  381 
Zoira  in  Tripoli,  381 


V 


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fLTHOOTM 
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